No holding these horses

Artist Richard Boyd-Dunlop.

Richard Boyd-Dunlop's collection of digital collage images is a long way from his first foray into art more than 20 years ago.

Jump, which captures the power and movement of horses, is the realisation of something he first thought about several years ago. "I've just had the opportunity to do something with it."

The self-taught artist, who relocated from Auckland to Napier 18 months ago, began his career painting bright designs on to T-shirts which he sold on the streets.

"I started like a lot of people, just doodling away."

Boyd-Dunlop ended up in Sydney working for a textile company before travelling off and on for about eight years. Wherever he went, his painting gear went with him, including travels through Eastern Europe, the UK and the Pacific.

In Barcelona, Spain, he would set up a long strip of canvas on the famous Las Ramblas pedestrian boulevard, creating works of art in front of literally hundreds of people at a time.

He has also been on artist residencies in Rarotonga and Niue.

Back in New Zealand, Boyd-Dunlop worked on huge, sometimes quite elaborate canvases then moved on to exploring the skull motif, which surged in popularity thanks to the work of contemporary UK artist Damien Hirst. Sick of the cost of canvas, Boyd-Dunlop sought out other material to use, such as builders' paper, which led to where he's at today.

In 2011, he had a retrospective in Auckland, covering 20 years of paintings, drawings, mixed media and design work and, earlier this year, held The Death of the Skull, which may be his last foray into skull imagery.

Jump is at a+e gallery, corner Hastings and Tennyson Sts, Napier, until November 24. Other works by Boyd-Dunlop at his shop Sugar Thread, 6 Hastings St, Napier.