Mr G's latest portrait honouring aviation legend Oscar Garden takes flight

Graeme Hoete, or Mr G, is creating a portrait of Kiwi aviation legend, Oscar Garden. Photo / George Novak

One of Tauranga's favourite artists will create a huge life-like tribute to honour a local aviation hero, thanks to a turn of serendipitous events.

Graeme Hoete, or Mr G, is creating a circular 2m wide portrait of the late Oscar Garden, the first New Zealander to fly from England to Australia.

Garden made the historic journey in a tiny Gipsy Moth aeroplane named Kia Ora in 1930, aged 27. He died in 1997 but lived for some time in Tauranga as a tomato grower.

Now, Mr G will create a portrait of the aviation hero for Tauranga Airport's new terminal.

"I love using my art to tell those stories.

"I say no to a lot of projects and I only take on projects that I feel guided to take on."

In April, Mr G said the airport invited him to paint something for the freshly upgraded airport.

There was a bit of "umming and ahing" about the different possible concepts that the painting could follow, but Mr G said nothing stood out to him and he decided to shelve working on the idea until a good idea popped up.

But in a turn of a coincidence that might only be called fate, a family friend who had a connection to Garden came knocking on Mr G's door asking if he would be interested in doing an art piece on the pilot.

They met up at a cafe where the family friend told Mr G "the guts of it" and Mr G was immediately on board.

"I said, 'I know the perfect place for it'," Mr G said.

"There's an epic story there and it connects to aviation."

Aside from the spray-painted art, Mr G will carve a frame out of wood for the tribute portrait.

"The portrait is to represent someone and the frame is just as much a part of it as the painting," he said.

Mr G, who was in Edinburgh last year, said he would work small parts of Garden's Scottish heritage into the painting in the frame.

"I'll incorporate little things that connect to his heritage."

The unveiling will coincide with Garden's daughter launching a book, Sundowner of the Skies, she has written about his life.

Whakatāne-born Mary Garden will travel from Australia for the launch and unveiling on August 11.

She believes there is no better place for the tribute to be placed and anticipates the ceremony will be an emotional affair.

"I'm going to be in tears."

She said the book revealed the "warts and all" of her father's story. After quitting the aviation industry in 1947, he moved to Tauranga in 1953 to be a tomato grower. He stayed for 25 years.

"He was a perfectionist and I was told he grew tomatoes like he flew planes," she said.

"He was one of the few that survived that kind of flight because of it."