Crayton-Brown on Hill

 Riverton artist Wayne Hill is a man with a plan.

After a driftwood sculpture he created was vandalised and stolen from the Aparima River estuary last month, Hill started to think big.

"I had a lot of emotions going through me," he said.
"But towards the end when I was getting over it all, I could see the bigger picture."

Hill made two driftwood statues for the estuary last month, intended to be part of Riverton's inaugural mid-winter solstice celebrations.

"It's given me a whole heap more ideas to build off," he said.

Before Ogon, the larger of the two statues, was stolen, Hill and solstice celebration organiser Robert Guyton had received a lot of positive feedback about the figures.
When the sculpture was damaged, Guyton told The Southland Times it was a "mean-spirited" act and the thief's "unfriendly intentions" had ruined a community event.

"Riverton people came to me in support, saying how gutted they were it had happened and the amount of pleasure it gave them when they did see it," Hill said. "It opened up a whole new world of possibilities."

One of those possibilities could be a sculpture exhibition to be held in the estuary, to celebrate the mid-winter solstice.

"It would be bringing an awareness to the estuary as well," Hill said.

Hill hoped people would be encouraged to clean up the estuary as they enjoyed the sculpture walk, by picking up bottles and bits of rubbish as they went.
Creative-minded people could enter their own "found object" sculptures, with a selection of them chosen to be displayed along the estuary walk during the mid-winter solstice celebrations.
He had been working with the reflection principle during the past few years, and said he could visualise the statues along the still water of the estuary.

"There are beautiful reflections over the estuary," he said.

Still just an idea, with the finer details yet to be worked out, Hill's plan has the backing of the Riverton Arts Centre.
He hoped they could pull it off because it would be an event the whole community could enjoy while celebrating the area and environment in which they live.

"I'm doing it because I just love the place," Hill said.

kimberley.crayton-brown@stl.co.nz