Beyond the Ordinary
This is where an exceptional hikoi, a journey, begins.
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Join us as we grow and discuss beauty and the history of ideas.
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Wilkie Fine Arts Gallery Rawene
CHRIS WILKIE is available for commissioned pieces, including Murals.
interested parties are encouraged to contact further information.
Wilkie Fine Arts Gallery - the following pieces are all oil paintings of several sizes.
All were based on the primitive forest environment of Fiordland, in the Far South od the New Zealand archipelago
Fine Art for sale at Wilkie Fine Arts Gallery Rawene.
If potential clients are interested discussing or purchasing in any pieces, please get in touch.
Art Works - Recently Sold:
the thumbnails (above) demonstrate artworks that have been SOLD RECENTLY and added to Prestigious Collections:
Beyond the ordinary
Get to know Wilkie Fine Arts Gallery and what we do, and how we're committed to quality and great service.
Commissioned work
Commission requests -please contact us to explore your vision.
Email: christalbotw@hotmail.com
Phone: 0211207970
Address: Chris Wilkie Fine Arts Gallery
1 Parnell Street, Rawene 0473
Hokianga, NEW ZEALAND
Hikoi - Walk with me
HIKOI - WALK WITH ME. EXHIBITED AT HIHIAUA CULTURAL CENTRE, WHANGAREI. TO MAY 22 2026.
On a misty morning in 2019 the Artist travelled up to an ancient Battle-site south of Kawakawa village. There in 1846 British forces fought Te Ruki Kawiti's troops, local iwi, and a small contingent raised and another famed warrior- chief, Hone Heke Pokai. The pakanga or fortifications, with a birds-eye view of the Bay of Islands, New Zealand, were called Ruapekapeka - The Bats' Nest.
Chris Wilkie had been to that site many times after joining into Ngatihine, in his first marriage. Developing big landscapes of maunga important in history, he quickly created a considerable body of work, including: huge individual paintings, prints and graphites, from 1987. The first figuring Ruapekapeka is owned by the Rudolph family who farmed below that historic area.
His first rendition of the famed cannon there (taken inby Te Ruki "The Duke" Kawiti after a successful ealier battle), was given to Andrew Spenser, a Maori Land Court Judge, husband of Ngapuhi kuia Mere Mangu. Then Chris Wilkie did a major exhibition at Marina Gallery in 2004 about Ruapekapeka called: After The Storm. These works were all acquired, and helped to sent his Ngapuhi daughter to the Globe Theatre for thespian training in 2004. It's major piece The Shadow of the Land, 2004, again featuring Kawiti's cannon and a dark, looming cloud, was acquired by Jim Peters MP, former Vice Chancellor Maori at Auckland University, then Chairman of the Whangarei District Council.
The battle and altered landscape there was always on his mind thereafter, so between 2019-26 he produced site drawings, then big canvases, showing the resonances and memories he felt were still to be found in that vast, scarred land around the pakanga/ Battle scene. The complex oil paintings gradually began to link-together to show a dramatic narrative: - a journey from a small town over the path where soldiers once trekked, through now- changed farmlands, dark forests of the mind, and up to the strange remnants of that historic battle.
Done over 6 years, with many other artistic adventures intertwined, the artworks were gracefully displayed at Hihiaua Cultural Centre, Whangarei in April- May 2026. Later in 2026, they showed at the artist's intimate gallery WILKIE FINE ARTS, in Rawene, Northland, NZ.
Dark drawings of Ruapekapeka Ancestors
- some based on 19th C recordings, some from the artist's imagination.
Many showed whom we descended from; others about whom we have become
