Lucy Galbraith

Lucy Galbraith is a self-taught Raglan-based artist. Her work is predominantly in oil paint but by no means restricted to that medium. She also enjoys working in acrylics, pencil, charcoal, digital and mixed media.

Before moving to Raglan, Lucy exhibited and worked on commissions from her home on the Kapiti Coast. She is also known as a pet-portrait artist, illustrator and writer.

Her latest work draws inspiration from what she describes as ‘bogan-chic’ and the charm of the West Coast’s various sub-cultures. Choosing subjects typical to the narratives of small-town New Zealand, she captures the underrated beauty of pig dogs, burn outs, car wrecks and cowboys in both realist and semi-abstract styles.

Using iconography usually associated with what might be considered lower-socio economic or working class themes, the aim is to capture the subject in more of a fine-art sense to provide a new context. The idea is to challenge what is deemed ‘better’ and ‘beautiful’ as we face a rapidly increasing economic/ class divide.

As social media and mass media in general tends to normalise excessive consumerism and a hunger for the latest shiny new things, it’s nice to look around and start appreciating beauty in more simple, everyday things. Beauty is all around us; it just depends on the way we choose to look at it.

On display this weekend is a mixture of old and new works from a variety of influences, as well as a couple of pieces from her latest series. Her work can be found on Instagram @duckduck.loose (website in the works), and contact can be made via email [email protected] .