How to look at a painting | Landscapes

How To Look At A Painting is an art series never before seen on television and provides viewers with a fresh and exciting perspective on how to truly appreciate and better understand the world of painting.

The series is based on the best-selling book by senior curator, Justin Paton, who also presents the show. Each week he embarks on a highly visual journey of exploration across the painted world to uncover and examine the marvels and mysteries of painting.

The heart of the series is Justin's engaging commentary on a wide variety of artworks, appealing to novice viewers, skeptics and experts alike. It is a thematic journey through the painted world of both New Zealand and international art and artists. Each episode focuses on a different topic and provides viewers with visual answers to Justin's search for understanding. From abstract to religious, contemporary to historical, portrait to landscape and from installations to paintings that seem like nothing at all - this is a journey through the unpredictable and wonderful, ever-changing world of art.

Tonight, Justin opens our eyes to landscape painting. He shows us how contemporary artists see landscapes today and how landscape painting has undergone an extraordinary transformation. We meet Robin White in her Wairarapa studio and discuss 'Summergrass' her tender depiction of the local landscape of a World War II prisoner camp. Justin also meets New Zealand contemporary artist Shane Cotton who's inspired as much by the landscape of his imagination as by Maori stories of their environment.