News
Art at No Strings Attached
Bruce will be displaying two of his works in the ‘No Strings Attached’ Art Exhibition in Invercargill NZ.
The event, at Whare Taupua, is being hosted by Arts Murihiku and is taking place from 1st – 12th July 2025.
Central Otago Arts Society
Bruce is now a member of the Central Otago Arts Society.
You can visit Bruce’s corner of the site here.
Bruce said: “It’s an honour and a privilege to be a member. A big thank you to all involved, especially Rebekah deJong and all others for making me feel welcome.”
Gallery updates
The gallery has been updated!
Now all of the art in the gallery is ordered by date, starting with the most recent.
For information, or to buy art, contact us here.
Art to appear in exhibition in Clyde
The Central Otago Art Society was established in Alexandra NZ more than 40 years ago and now has a widespread membership encompassing Central Otago and Otago/Southland.
Exhibition featured in Lakes Weekly Bulletin
The Brushes to Brushes exhibition, and a brief biography, was featured in an article by Jessica Allen in this week’s Lakes Weekly Bulletin.
Follow this link to open this week’s edition, and then scroll over to page 16.
Opening night - exhibition extended
The Brushes to Brushes exhibition opened on 14th February at the Cromwell Museum, with many guests, and well-wishers from around the world unable to attend in person.
The exhibition has also been extended by one week, and will now close on 7th March.
Full exhibition contents
Benjamin Duhig’s House ruins Lowburn (1866)
(Sometimes misspelled as Duohy’s)
Historic Ruins in the Nevis Valley
Shaws residence (1875) Duffers Gully on
Happy Valley Station, Bannockburn
Tributary flowing into the Nevis River.
Tor Rock on the road to the Nevis.
Remains of Old Chinese Store,(1890s) Gold Mining Site, Mt Pisa.
Fireplace Renshaw Cottage Kawara Station (1880)
Clouds Over Blair Athol Farm Queensberry
(Was Alex & Noelene King’s Farm)
Lind House Stewart Town Bannockburn
Artist’s self portrait (2019)
Horse. Fine Art Drawing (1986)
Two Kiwis, Stewart Island Brown Kiwis (Apteryx australis)
Watercolour Painted 1987
Barry Cartoon
43 Inniscourt St – Old Court House Historic Building
6 Molyneux Ave – Historic Stone House
Cromwell Museum hosting Brushes to Brushes
Cromwell Museum manager Jennifer Hay and artist D Bruce Aitken pose with one of the artist’s works which will be presented in his upcoming Brushes to Brushes exhibition which starts Friday, 14th February, 2025, at the Cromwell Museum, Central Otago, NZ.
New commission work
A recently-commissioned painting, this stone building was the original dairy on the Shannon Farm, just south of Cromwell, off Ripponvale Road.
It was used for storing milk and food. Shannon Farm was owned by the prominent local Ritchie family from 1882 to 1944.
It was then sold to Crabbe & Sons, and subsequently to the Leysers in the 1970s.
Exhibition opening hours
January 6, 2025 – The opening night of the exhibition at the Cromwell Museum will be Friday, 14th February, 2025, at 6pm.
Brushes to Brushes exhibition
Cromwell Museum, Cromwell, New Zealand
February 14-27, 2025
December 4, 2024 – In April, 1969, the Invercargill-born 15-year-old Southland Boys High School student Bruce Aitken was featured in the Southland Times for his artwork.
This piece was Aitken’s very first sale, as part of a fundraiser for the school.
And now, after a lifetime of art and music, the Southland Rock & Roll Hall of Fame member is home – and his artwork, not his drumkit, will be taking centre stage at the Cromwell Museum for a highly-anticipated art exhibition, Brushes to Brushes, from Friday, February 14 to Thursday, February 27, 2025.
Aitken started visiting and staying in Queensberry, Central Otago, from a very early age on what was then Alex and Noelene King’s farm. During the mid 1980s, he spent a lot of time visiting Cromwell, where he started painting landscapes of the area. This resulted in the sale of some oil paintings, fine-art drawings and detailed watercolours.
His love of Cromwell and the surrounding areas has always drawn him back to the area.
In January 2024, he visited again – and the painting bug bit him again. This resulted in the journey that has now led to the Brushes to Brushes exhibition – a nod to his career in music, using drumsticks and drum brushes, and his lifelong use of brushes for his art. The exhibition will feature completed paintings of the area, including Cromwell, Bannockburn, Mt Pisa, Duffers, Lowburn and Nevis Valley. These paintings are the first time Aitken has worked with oils since 1988.
The globetrotting Aitken, who returned to live in Cromwell in November 2024 after spending many years in Australia, has performed behind the drumkit around the world, picking up a variety of awards and featuring as the cover artist of the DRUM Connexions magazine in New Zealand in 2005. He was also the founder and host of the successful and award-winning Cape Breton International Drum Festival in Nova Scotia, Canada, in the early 2000s, an event that ran for 10 years. That event brought renowned drummers from around the world – including New Zealand – to educate and perform.
Participants over the years included Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and John Lennon’s drummers in the early 1970s, as well as percussionists and drummers from Santana, Chicago, Styx, Steely Dan, Herbie Hancock, Frank Zappa, Miles Davis, King Crimson, Level 42, Billy Joel, Peter Gabriel, the Rolling Stones, and dozens more.