In his 94 years, Lu Le Cren has painted portraits, street scenes and warplanes, with many tucked away in his retirement villa where few people get to see them.
That changes this weekend when Arvida Waimea Plain’s hosts its first art exhibition and 20 artists and photographers in the retirement village put their work on display to show some of the artistic talent that has been developed over decades.
For Lu, a Nelson College old boy, it began with pencil and charcoal, and he admits to being a doodler for as long as he can remember. Being a schoolboy through the World War II years started a lifelong fascination with warplanes and he has painted most of them over the years, with Spitfires created on canvas as well as handmade models to fly as wind vanes.
He painted his last painting last year, a Spitfire for a fellow resident in the village.
“I decided there and then it was the last one I could do. I’ve sold quite a lot and given a lot away and ended up in the retirement village with about 60 paintings – I’ve got a garage half full of them! I retired at 58, so I’ve had plenty of time.”
At the villa where he lives with his wife Joan, his paintings are on the wall, tucked away in the spare bedroom and stacked in the garage, as testament to decades of creativity.
Though it’s his paintings on display at the exhibition, his talents also led him to pottery and at one stage he taught pottery classes at the polytech in Nelson. His model planes are also works of art, created from scratch by drawing a plan and using wood and aluminium to build replicas of warplanes, including of course, the Spitfire MK IX.
Fellow village resident Donna Swift is organising the art exhibition which stemmed from her own photographic work, but also a growing awareness of the talent that was often hidden in the village. It was a matter of uncovering the talent. That mostly happened by word of mouth, leading her to knocking on doors to discover the artists and their work.
“I knew there were painters in the village, so I started to approach people who were very shy to start with. But once they started taking me into their homes to show me their work, there were all these wonderful paintings.
“We wanted to show the talent in the village which tends to be forgotten when people get older. But they have wonderful talents and this is just showcasing that. As the day gets closer, people ring me up and say: ‘hey, I’ve found another one’. We thought we’d start small with the exhibition, but it sort of grew.”
The photography and painting exhibition and sale runs on Saturday and Sunday (June 14 and 15) at the clubhouse between 10am and 4pm, with coffee and cookies on offer. A shuttle will run from a parking area near the Queen St gate.
