Fine lines and phone lines

Outdoor dining over a bay in the Marlborough Sounds is a glimpse of the good life enjoyed in the top of the south.

Good Times, an acrylic painting by Rarangi artist David Langham, is the winning work in the Telecom White Pages' annual art awards for Marlborough and now graces its 2010 telephone book.

Having lived in Marlborough for the past nine years, Mr Langham describes the scenery and leisure activities here as "fantastic". Portraying some of that was his aim in the Telecom competition.

"I wanted to give a sense of being in Marlborough and those sorts of moments where the family gets together and they sit around.

"And that [Marlborough] Sounds' view is just spectacular. It's just a beautiful place to be."

Asked which bay in the Sounds he had selected for the phone book picture, he confided it was entirely fictional. So are the people sitting around the table.

His adult son claimed one of the boys looked a bit like him, but the figures are intentionally faceless.

Mr Langham and his wife Irene's cat Sushi makes an appearance, though. Perched on a chair, the white feline eyes up platters of specialty Marlborough food including crayfish, mussels and grapes, that the family are enjoying.

Painting became a passion for Mr Langham when he was a six- or seven-year-old boy growing up in Christchurch. Leaving school, he trained as a signwriter and continues to do commercial art work for his "bread-and-butter"income.

Sadly, the age of computers had destroyed much of the creativity involved in commercial art, he said.

In earlier years, signs were hand-painted. "I used to train for hours and hours, doing straight lines ... Now the computer does it perfectly."

As he grew older the desire to spend more time doing his own work became stronger.

Having a painting selected for the Marlborough phone book cover has provided encouragement and a welcome $2000 prize.

His work will now be judged against those chosen for Telecom's other regional White Pages book covers and the national winner will receive $20,000.

- The Marlborough Express