Florentine bust inspiration for artist's latest exhibition

Peter Bromhead picked up the sculpture on his travels. Photo / Richard Robinson

A gorgeous lady has fired cartoonist Peter Bromhead's imagination and last night he opened an exhibition inspired by her.

Buste de Femme at Parnell Gallery includes 15 oils and inks and pays homage to a 9kg Florentine ceramic bust made in the 15th century.

It's of an unknown woman by an unknown sculptor and Bromhead picked it up in Europe - he can't quite remember when - but he's been looking at her for years and loving what he saw.

"It's very beautiful. It's got one of those faces, this long neck, you look at it from different angles and it looks totally different. I see something new every time I look at it."

The 10-time Qantas Award winner completed the project this year - the challenge was to take an object created hundreds of years ago and make something modern from it.

In the 11th picture of this series that meant capturing something of a mood some Kiwi men might be used to, he said.

"There's a look on her face there that my wife might give me if I came home at 2am in the morning. You know the 'so where have you been' look.

Despite having 30-odd exhibitions under his name, the 77-year-old says many people - even those close to him - are constantly surprised to find out that his love of art encompasses painting and modernist drawing.

An earlier project based on Hans Holbein's Dance of Death woodcuts was purchased for the permanent collection of the Auckland City Art Gallery.