Life in Colour

Story by Skye Wishart

Artist and designer Paul Darragh went from a fast-paced life in NYC to settling down in the Mount and evolving his painting practice. We visit him as he prepares for a show at Tauranga Art Gallery.

Joy and action: that’s what local abstract artist Paul Darragh wants you to feel when you look at his work. You might have noticed his bright, bold geometric style beginning to pop up around our area: that curvy mural at Te Papa o ngā Manu Porotakataka in downtown Mount Maunganui, the LGBTQI+ rainbow tones covering the road in at The Historic Village, and a vast carpark wall for Hamilton’s annual Boon Street Art Festival. And now the people of Tauranga get to see his signature style at the Tauranga Art Gallery in the show Shape Up Or Ship Out.

While he’s now based in Mount Maunganui, Paul worked in New York City as a graphic artist for a decade, designing for the likes of Nike, Google and The New York Times — he even created the bold graphics dominating Rihanna’s music video Rude Boy. Still freelancing graphic design remotely to the US, he’s dedicating a huge chunk of time now to art. Using acrylic paint on canvas and murals, he’s inspired by what’s happening to the world culturally and technologically: “I’m interested in where the world is heading and where the world is powered — the ways in which our days change.”

He started seriously painting in 2015, during his last two years in New York. Rather than the joyous approach, it had a gritty edge back then. “My style there was way more influenced by the streets, Brooklyn, swagger and attitude. I think of it as my art school period, finding my style.”

He counts Stuart Davis — who is regarded as a forefather of pop art — as a big influence. In the 1940s and ’50s he created bright, jazz-inspired abstract works, which often featured advertising and consumer goods and conveyed the urban sense of energy of New York City. But Paul is influenced by modern and postmodern art in general. “The intention of postmodern art is to break new ground and create a new idea of what art is. It’s more interesting to me than Renaissance and classical art.” Flat design is a favourite, too — a minimalistic, two-dimensional graphic style. “I have a real appreciation for American-style graphic design, that ultra-capitalistic and super-consumable style that started in the post-war era: the new jet-set age, new inventions, selling that dream.”

Everything Paul paints is first meticulously planned out, using both Adobe Illustrator and hand sketches, and even scale models for exhibitions. He’ll use texture additives in his acrylic paint, such as moulding paste with sand, to give parts of his works a rough and three-dimensional feel. Sometimes he’ll use colours and forms to create a weird visual distortion. “I always want it to feel as if parts are moving within the canvas. I’m drawn to bold and bright colour that convey joy and energy. When you pair certain colours together, like blue and red, it vibrates. Your static artwork can literally come alive.” This month’s Tauranga Art Gallery show will exhibit various artists with different themes, but all based on the concept that artists face the financial reality of having to balance their exhibiting and commercial art practice. For Paul, it’s commissioned murals alongside his paintings. For fellow exhibitor Turumeke Harrington, it’s the objects she fabricates and sells, such as tees and brooches, versus her large sculptural installations. “That side hustle that some artists need in order to make ends meet,” says Paul.

For his part of the show, Paul’s inspiration is the global shipping trade, its disruption during the pandemic and “the spillover from that” — expressed as a combination of “commissioned” murals and smaller personal pieces. He’ll create a room of wall-to-wall murals representing flags and codes of conduct at sea, which he’ll paint in situ over five days. Hanging on the murals will be the acrylic works on canvas, and these will at the same time represent cargo and shipping containers. This theme came to Paul on a recent trip to Malaysia, home-country of his partner Ali Kamaruddin. “Flying over Singapore, it seemed like there were a million cargo ships sitting below us, and I remember thinking, holy crap, the world is massive! We are all influenced by our environment and here in Tauranga we have the largest port in the country. Also the shipping container is an iconic structure in our lives now — tiny homes, coffee carts — so there’s a lot to talk about there.”

It’s a soggy, rainy, grey day at the home and art studio that Paul and Ali share. A tall wooden gate opens into a walled courtyard garden. The front door is painted a bold buttercup yellow, making for a joyous entrance in the rain and perfectly matching the Stuart Davis print in the entrance way. The small flat is upbeat and cosy with bold colour-blocked art and ceramics. There’s a coffee machine letting off steam in the corner. A small fluffy dog, Charlie, chews a squeaking toy on the rug. Lovely, homely and domestic, it seems a far cry from the fast-paced, concrete jungle and hotbed of creative energy that is New York City. Paul was raised on the family farm near Matamata in the 1980s, and it was a trip to New York City when he was only six years old that cemented the Big Apple in his future. “I remember the bigness of it, the loudness, the honking cars in Manhattan — that energy I fell in love with.” Music and movies in his teenage years further glorified the city, and he finally realised his dream in his mid-20s in 2007, moving from Wellington to Melbourne and finally onto New York City. He rocketed up the career ladder as a graphic artist, completely loving the ride.

Clockwise from top left: Paul’s latest art is themed around the global shipping trade; giving Charlie some love; vibrant work for the upcoming show; Paul and Ali’s home is a haven of art and design. Next spread: Paul’s mural in downtown the Mount.

“In New York, every day you feel like you’re in a movie. The skyline when you’re crossing the Brooklyn Bridge never gets old, it always feels magical and incredible. And the people were my favourite thing — the people make it. First, the diversity is incredible. Everyday you’re interacting with people from all different cultures, which gives New Yorkers a great sense of community and pride. There is also more of a meritocracy there — if you work hard you can totally make it, so you’re always near something incredible if you want it, whether it’s exposure to celebrities or other scenes, you can make it happen. People are incredibly friendly, gregarious, engaging, they want to help you.”

Paul freelanced a lot but for four years had his own design agency in New York, called Manhattan Born, with vast TV network company Viacom (now Paramount Global) as his main client. His graphic design work is always in the entertainment industry.

He says it was interesting coming back to New Zealand’s tall poppy syndrome. “New Zealanders don’t like being braggadocious and self-promoting. But that’s the way I’ve learnt to be a businessman now. “I was 25 when I arrived in New York and 35 when I left. Those years are formative in your professional development, and set the tone for how I conduct business.”

Paul hadn’t planned to move home; he thought he’d stay in New York forever. But with the Trump presidency underway, he didn’t like the shift he sensed in the USA and his gut told him it was time to go home (that, and his 01 visas were becoming difficult to renew).

Back in New Zealand, Paul was soon operating from his parents’ brand new barn in rural Matamata while connecting into Hamilton’s art scene. But once he met Ali, founder of Mount Maunganui’s Forty Thieves Barbershop, he changed his focus to

Tauranga and has found the art community in wider Tauranga “incredibly welcoming”.

“You do have to find your community as that’s the only way opportunities will come — or just to bounce ideas off each other and get advice on projects.” For example, during a monthly get together with arts and culture advocate Sonya Korohina of Supercut Projects and artist Lynette Fisher, they came up with the idea of staging their own exhibition at Sonya’s Ōtūmoetai mid-century modern house, as a way of dealing with lack of exhibition space in Tauranga.

The resulting four-day Home & Garden show was held in November 2022 and featured artwork across a variety of mediums by Paul, Lynette, local artist John Roy and Christchurch’s Jacquelyn Greenbank. Paul’s pieces were inspired by the architecture of Sonya’s house — reducing it to simple lines and graphics.

Paul’s been making his mark on Tauranga, and so far he’s content to call it home. “Ali and I have made our life here in Mount Maunganui — we miss it when we go away. We have an amazing natural environment here, it’s beautiful. I would never have chosen to live here but life takes you places so you make the most of that.”

Saying that, frequent travel gives him the perspective he needs as an ex-New Yorker. He’s still inspired by people-watching on the streets of large cities: the crazy street fashion, the diversity, the sense that big things are happening. “You always need to step outside your small circle of everyday life for perspective. When I travel to these places, I realise all the stuff I was worried about doesn’t matter.” artfull.co.nz

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