We paid a visit to The Black Barn at the weekend. What a delightful spot.
The 25 acre vineyard is five minutes from the Village of Havelock North in Hawkes Bay Wine Country. Set on the lower slopes of Te Mata hills, it has stunning views and magnificent vines which produce the fruit for their premium Bordeaux styled red varieties such as Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc. The white grapes, hanging in huge heavy bunches that make my home-grown efforts look like samples, produce popular varieties such as Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc.
They hold Saturday markets there and open air shows and movies – something I would love to enjoy sometime. They also have an award winning bistro. We cast wistful looks at it. On that sunny Sunday it would have been a real treat to sit under the vines and enjoy a choice meal.
But hey ho – our feast was looking at the work of Paul Dibble, one of New Zealand’s top sculptors.
The light and airy gallery at Black Barn lay at the end of a walkway of fig trees. I was bad. I picked a fig and my Mom and I shared it. Yum.
I enjoyed the whimsy and humour in some of Dibble’s pieces. Choosing an Apple – four delicate single edition models cast in bronze, were enchanting. His single edition Flying Like a Bird was a rhapsody of movement between dancer and bird. Even at $12 500 I’m sure it will be snapped up by some art lover.
His light-hearted touch in Teaching Kiwi to Dance makes you want to smile. Dibble is unusual in that he casts his work with the help of a small team of highly skilled assistants. His sculptures vary in size from 350 millimetre high maquettes to large works of over 5.5 metres. His subjects tend to be the human figure, objects drawn from contemporary life and from the history of New Zealand and the Pacific.
Dibble’s wife Fran, an artist in her own right had some of her paintings on display as well under the theme of “looking into the atmospheric effects of the natural world.”
If anyone is passing through London, one of Dibbles most well- known pieces is the New Zealand Hyde Park Corner War Memorial in London. Each of the 16 cross shaped standards are adorned with text, patterns and small sculptures.
Dibble. Paul
Flying like a Bird.
Cast Bronze. Single Edition. 2009
720mm x 800mm x 120mm
Dibble, Paul. Choosing an Apple model 1, 2, 3 & 4, (2012).
Cast Bronze.
Black Barn Art Gallery.
Fig Tree Lined Pathway to Black Barn Bistro.
Dibble. Fran
On Soft Ground
Various Paints on Paper under Glass 2012
80mm x 800mm
Outdoor eating area under magnificent grapevines with huge bunches of grapes hanging down
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