Grahame Sydney, ONZM (born 1948) is a New Zealand artist, based in the southern South Island region of Otago. His landscapes, which concentrate largely on sparse elements of human impact on Otago's wild natural beauty and the loneliness of individuals in this scenery, possess a style which could be described as magic realism, and have been compared to works by artists such as Edward Hopper. His work encompasses many media - oils, watercolours, etchings, tempera and lithographs.
Born in Dunedin in 1948, he started a full-time art career in 1974, sharing his time since largely between Dunedin and Mount Pisa Station, near Cromwell. In 1978 he was named as Frances Hodgkins Fellow at the University of Otago, and married Roslyn Nairn the same year.
A book of his art, The Art of Grahame Sydney, won at the Montana New Zealand Book Awards (New Zealand's most prominent book award) in 2000. Sydney was made an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit (ONZM) in 2004.
In 2009 he made his first documentary film, released at the Wanaka Festival of Colour as "Dreaming of El Dorado".
Famous quotes containing the words grahame and/or sydney:
“The world has held great Heroes,
As history books have showed;
But never a name to go down to fame
Compared with that of Toad!”
—Kenneth Grahame (1859–1932)
“Tiger look at this, Reg.”
—Afferback Lauder. Let Stalk Strine, Ure Smith, Sydney (1965)