Whanganui artist Stuart Willan's surprising talent on show

Whanganui artist Stuart Willan paints in oil on handcrafted boards and canvases. Photo / Esther Topfer

A reclusive and talented artist is opening his first pop-up exhibition in Whanganui on August 9, and showing along with four of his former UCOL classmates.

Stuart Willan has been working away for years in a studio on the top floor of the old Chronicle building in Whanganui's Drews Ave.

His classmate Esther Topfer described him as "a shy, middle-aged Englishman of enormous talent".

He has only ever exhibited once, in Wellington.

He paints in oil in an English style, but also makes "monumental" glass work and has started crafting wooden objects as well.

"I think that people are going to get a real surprise that we have such a hidden talent in Whanganui," Topfer said.

She and fellow classmates Lindsay Marsh, Alice Kim and Elysabeth Wolter will have work on show as well, with their unframed work available to buy.

The Lugubrious Stu and His Girls show opens tonight at 5.30pm, and will also be open from 9am to 4pm tomorrow. Visitors get to troop up several flights of stairs to Willan's studio, which Topfer said is an experience in itself.

"Not many people have been up to this level. It's a really unusual experience."