Painter lives through his work

BY DANIEL SIMMONS RITCHIE - THE WELLINGTONIAN

Vincent Duncan likes to study Wellington's stores. He memorises the floor plan, the shelves, and the way people move about.

But when things change – if The Warehouse shifts a row of shelves or adjusts its prices – he says his memory crashes like a computer.

Looking at his paintings you might not guess Duncan has a photographic memory. They are bold, almost all land and seascape, made of thick streaks of red, yellow, and blue.

"In the world today we have so much anger and violence, I don't use black in my artwork. It's too harsh," he says.

The Newtown resident calls oil painting his drug and his healer. He finishes most in a day, working constantly, often waking up to smack his dreams to canvas before they fade away.

While you might not recognise his name you might recognise his work. Duncan has been painting Wellington's bays and buildings for almost 20 years.

Last month, he held an exhibition at ROAR gallery.

His paintings hang in the Basin Reserve, McDonalds and Wellington Hospital, and former mayor Mark Blumsky bought one for his office.

He has sold many overseas, he says, recently shipping several to Canada, and has received Christmas cards and Facebook kudos from fans abroad.

He also loves to give his work away.

"I don't like taking things for nothing," he says. "I had an operation in Lower Hutt and I gave a painting as a thank you for the operation."

It might be in Duncan's nature to give back, but it has been a hard road getting here. "I was bullied at school very badly and so I went into art as my escape," he says.

When he got married his artwork stopped but, when the marriage ended after 10 years, he picked up his paint brush again.

"When my wife left I got sick and I went back to this. The bright colours came out; it was my healer, it was my energy. Something inside, it just came out."

In 1996 he began selling his work. They were selling cheaply, but he could afford to buy oil – and when he could not afford oil, he gave up smoking, because one addiction was more pressing.

There might be hints of those struggles in Duncan's work.

He says he likes boats because they remind him of childhood. He talks lovingly about a building he painted, big and ill-fitting on the skyline, because it is okay to be different.

Duncan, however, has a far more literal bent for hiding things.

He says several of his paintings have other paintings concealed beneath their canvas.

"People have got them and don't know what's behind – it's like a little treasure trove."

He hopes it is another part of his style that he will be remembered for one day."I want my family and families to be proud, that beautiful feeling of being known."