From boots to brushes

As a youngster growing up on a Taihape farm, Rex Turnbull's ambition was focused on rugby, not the international design scene where his name is a by-word. The co-founder and creative director of the Sydney?based lifestyle magazine Lino, which is read worldwide, as well as an award-winning painter and book illustrator, is in Wanganui, along with other acclaimed designers from Japan and US, for the Wanganui School of Design's Survival Camp.
Mr Turnbull, who also is a sought-after judge for all types of design, including packaging, jewellery and fashion, recalled travelling to Wanganui for rugby games, and trying, not often successfully, to fit in a visit to the Sarjeant Gallery.
At 17 he was a Wanganui rugby representative, playing on the wing, and had a future as such.
"I could have continued with rugby and got arthritis like my dad (William) did ? but I chose to paint," Mr Turnbull said.
His artistic career he attributes to Martin Rostenberg, a painter, sculptor and stained-glass artist.
"Taihape was blessed with Martin Rostenberg. Brought out to New Zealand about 1960 by the Catholic Church to do stained-glass windows, he settled in Taihape, not far from the farm. He saw my drawings and nurtured my talent."
As Mr Turnbull's mentor, Mr Rostenberg encouraged the then 11-year-old to attend his Taihape Arts Society's classes and to take art at Taihape College.
"I was one of the college's first students; art wasn't part of its School Certificate curriculum, so I did it by correspondence."
And he doesn't believe maths should be an essential requirement for students wishing to do a computer graphic design degree.
"At school I was useless at maths; I was allowed to sit at the back of the class and draw. With maths so much depends on how it is taught."
Of Ngati Tuwharetoa, Ngati Kahungunu and Scottish descent, Mr Turnbull on leaving college received a Maori Education Foundation grant to study graphic design at Wellington Polytechnic. His parents, though supportive of his talents, believed he would have a better chance of making a living as a designer than as a painter.
Maori culture and art are interconnected and Mr Turnbull, whose mother Roma (nee Ropata) was Taihape Hospital's first Maori matron, said he grew up surrounded by art. "It was part of everyday life." His joy in painting saw him continue with this throughout his time at polytechnic and he won the 1974 Kelliher Art Award for Last Puha before the Storm. The award not only gave him the money to go to London in 1975, but also an entry into the art and design industry.
His first job there was as a designer for Vanessa Redgrave's newspaper Workers Press. He then became Harrods' art director and found "as many people on its staff as there are in Taihape."
The three years he spent at Harrods, working with an almost unlimited advertising budget, "opened my eyes to the world of fashion, especially couture, food, architecture and travel. The 1970s were a very exciting time."
The need to reconnect with New Zealand, especially the countryside from which he draws inspiration, saw him return home in 1978. With more design work available in Sydney he based himself there, and 12 years ago with Ian Ossher formed a boutique design studio aimed at the Australian and New Zealand markets for multi-national clients.
The magazine Lino was formed following the September 11, 2001, terrorist attack. "When the phones stopped ringing we decided to create a Trans-Tasman magazine."
New Zealand, he said, was at the cutting edge of design and had a lot to teach the rest of the world. As a result of being down under New Zealanders, he said, had to fight harder for recognition, but they grew up surrounded by beauty and without the same level of distraction and influences of people overseas. "You could say we are blessed by the tyranny of distance."