Alvin Pankhurst Galleries

01/06/2026

CELEBRATING ALVIN PANKHURST: HIS LIFE AND ART

SLEEP WAS A NUISANCE
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“There are only two ways to live your life.
One is as though nothing is a miracle.
The other is as though everything is”
– Albert Einstein
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Kia Ora,

I painted Maybe Tomorrow until 3 or 4am each day and got up at 9.00am – I always found it annoying to have to sleep. I worked at The Evening Post from 1.30 – 3pm, the afternoon edition. The house I lived in was set against a steep hill with a lovely ceiling. Very high studs and a huge high basement. I cooked on a gas stove – dug a garden for fresh veges – juiced raspberries which grew wild against the back fence - made my own bread.

Robèrt would wander up at 2am and I would make coffee and scones. I often made hot chips at 3am. I used to wake Ephra with them. I smoked a roll your own cigarette continuously and drank weak tea with no milk. With roll your owns they just went out as I painted. One would last just about all night.

Sometimes a small group of my artist friends would come over at night and we would play poker. I was never interested in drugs – never smoked any ma*****na, I saw the effect it had on my friends. In fact, I was the one who bailed them out when they got high and into trouble. The funny thing is, I looked like a hippy with my long hair and jeans and they looked straight.

A family friend sat and watched me working on Maybe Tomorrow all night as I painted the door to the cupboard open. In the morning I didn’t like it, so I painted it out. ‘I’m never watching you paint again!’ John said indignantly, and he never did!

Prints are available in all sizes www.alvinpankhurst.com

This tribute is from Lisa Caughey
“Arohanui Alvin, and so much gratitude for making the world a more beautiful place.”


Keep happy and healthy
Cheers
Ephra (and Alvin), Matthew, André, Anna, Lydia and Dara


The gallery is open on Wednesdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays 10.30 – 3 pm and on request.

Please note that we now have AFTERPAY.

Any questions email Ephra at [email protected]
or ring or text me at 021 100 7689.

27/04/2026

CELEBRATING ALVIN PANKHURST: HIS LIFE AND ART

IF NOT TODAY... MAYBE TOMORROW
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“Obstacles cannot bend me. Every obstacle yields with effort.”
– Leonardo da Vinci
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Kia Ora,

Alvin said
“I had decided after the fire that it didn’t matter how long I spent painting a picture. It just had to be good. I had a good idea for MaybeTomorrow. The whole picture was 4ft x 6 ft in size (122 cm x 183 cm). The old man is sitting there looking at his derelict home from which everything has been stripped out, and he was remembering it as it was.

The images above the fireplace and the mirror are how it used to be. He was now an old man, and he was a young man when he lived there before when it was his family home.

If he stood up or rubbed his eyes, then maybe tomorrow he will see it as it used to be.

The roots are the way of showing how time passes. I used the wild climbing roses – I used to borrow them when I walked past them and put them in a vase. They are the only ones I ever came across that sprouted roots in the water (regenerated). That’s why they were the only flowers I used in any of the paintings with the roots – beginning with Urban Sprawl.”

To be continued …

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“We all belong to one tree. The roots of time. All religions, arts, and sciences are branches of the same tree. Humanity thrives when we grow together, not apart. We are more connected than we think”
– Albert Einstein
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Keep happy and safe

Cheers

Ephra (and Alvin), Matthew, André, Anna, Lydia and Dara


The gallery is open on Wednesdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays 10.30 – 3 pm and on request.

Please note that we now have AFTERPAY.

Any questions email Ephra at [email protected]
or ring or text me at 021 100 7689.

https://www.pankhurst.co.nz

30/03/2026

CELEBRATING ALVIN PANKHURST: HIS LIFE AND ART

EVERY PAINTING HAS TO COUNT
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“Creativity takes courage”
– Henri Matisse
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Kia Ora,

Alvin said

“I had four years of Design School. Only two of us received Honours after completing the fourth year. All of my work had gone up in flames, only an art book of mine was recovered after the fire. But everything had been marked beforehand by the lecturers, so I was awarded the Diploma of Graphic Design with Honours.

I had lost everything I painted and owned – even the rings on my fingers that I had made myself in a part time job I had as a welder and spray painter – the rings were more like knuckle dusters! – I only had two on at the time – they were cut off me.

When I left hospital I kept thinking I could easily have died in the fire and what would I have left behind to show that I was an artist. I felt that every day has to count. Every painting has to count, and that is how I lived.

I started painting Maybe Tomorrow in1970 and continued until 1974. I was painting it when I met Ephra, the love of my life, in 1971, and I painted her portrait on the mantelpiece.

Maybe Tomorrow is a simple thing of the old man looking in the mirror and seeing how the room is now. Both mirrors show the graffiti walls and ruined house – no fireplaces – nothing. Everything has been taken away. The oval mirror has the old man’s reflection, and the mirror above reflects the room as it is now. He is sitting there looking at his vandalised derelict house where everything has been stripped out, and he is remembering it as it used to be … the memories of his life …”

To be continued …

Note – the wallpaper in Kitty is the same as that in Maybe Tomorrow, which Alvin adapted from a 14th century Italian manuscript. Kitty is one of a limited series of individually handmade silkscreen original prints that were from a 1,000-year-old Chinese technique.

KITTY silk screen prints are available at 20% off www.alvinpankhurst.com

This tribute is from Mihai Balais
Alvin is one of Aotearoa/New Zealand’s greatest Masters, from a time when art was Art - alive with meaning, not a futile game of aesthetics.


Keep happy and healthy
Cheers
Ephra (and Alvin), Matthew, André, Anna, Lydia and Dara


The gallery is open on Wednesdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays 10.30 – 3 pm and on request.

Please note that we now have AFTERPAY.

Any questions email Ephra at [email protected]
or ring or text me at 021 100 7689.

11/03/2026

CELEBRATING ALVIN PANKHURST: HIS LIFE AND ART

186 STEPS TO FOREVER
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“The painter has the universe in his mind and hands.”
– Leonardo da Vinci
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Kia Ora,

When I was 20 I visited an artist Robèrt Franken in Wellington, a friend of a friend from university. Whilst I was there another artist visited and started talking about this amazing person and artist he was flatting with. He invited me to come and visit them. Their house in Laura Ave, Brooklyn happened to have 186 steep steps winding up to it, with wild growth surrounding the path. Puffing, I knocked on the door. Alvin opened it. That was it. We have been together for 55 years.

In this big old home Alvin had a large painting against the wall that he was working on in his bedroom - Wow! Oh Wow! It was Maybe Tomorrow (standing 5 ft high by 7 ft wide).

Later, when Alvin won the prestigious NZ Art Award – the Benson & Hedges – the international Judge called Maybe Tomorrow “a tour to force in its immaculate technique, exquisitely detailed composition, eerie colour and compelling sense of time and space.”

More to come on this masterpiece …


Prints are available in all sizes www.alvinpankhurst.com
SPECIAL 20% off Maybe Tomorrow prints


This tribute is from Gareth Price, Magic Realist
“Lovely man and incredible artist. Lots of love to you all. He was and is a huge influence on me too, just quietly. Rest in peace Alvin. You will be greatly missed.”


Keep happy and healthy
Cheers
Ephra (and Alvin), Matthew, André, Anna, Lydia and Dara


The gallery is open on Wednesdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays 10.30 – 3 pm and on request.

Please note that we now have AFTERPAY.

Any questions email Ephra at [email protected]
or ring or text me at 021 100 7689.

08/03/2026

18/02/2026

CELEBRATING ALVIN PANKHURST: HIS LIFE AND ART

LET OUR LUGGAGE PASS
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“The greater danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short, but in setting our aim too low and achieving our mark.”
– Michelangelo
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Kia Ora,

Welcome to the New Year with Alvin and his people.

Alvin’s regeneration Roots of Time – his first series which began with his Self Portrait after the fire – will be a part of the next few months.

He often spoke of Henri Rousseau’s The Sleeping Gypsy, which sparked his regeneration series.

People have been interested in buying prints of the Self Portrait, so we now have them for sale.

Like a lot of great artists, Rousseau was humiliated by critics and the public, but many artists revered his work. Picasso was excited when he saw his paintings and organised an exhibition. But when Rousseau died aged 66 years in 1910, he had just seven friends at his funeral, including the French poet Guillaume Apollinaire, who wrote:

“Let our luggage pass duty free through the gates of heaven.
We will bring you brushes and paints and canvas. That you may spend your sacred leisure in the light and truth of painting.”


This tribute is from Mark Cross
Fare thee well on your journey, good friend. We’ll meet again in that realist studio in the sky, I am sure.

Keep happy and healthy
Cheers
Ephra (and Alvin), Matthew, André, Anna, Lydia and Dara


The gallery is open on Wednesdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays 10.30 – 3 pm and on request.

Please note that we now have AFTERPAY.

Any questions email Ephra at [email protected]
or ring or text me at 021 100 7689.

18/12/2025

CELEBRATING ALVIN PANKHURST: HIS LIFE AND ART

FOLLOWING THE STAR, FINDING THE JOY!
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“He who is fixed to a star does not change his mind.”
– Leonardo da Vinci
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Kia Ora,

Yes, Alvin fixed his star, unwavering in his focus, working hard in his creative brilliance with the steely inner compass needed to achieve real goals, and taking joy in his painting and his family.

This year is thankfully drawing to a close. We look forward to the year ahead. Hopefully we can all slow down a little or perhaps gallop in a happy direction (the Year of the Fire Horse begins on 17 February!).

We are changing the official opening times for the next month.

After this Sunday 21 December we will close for the Christmas week.

From Saturday 3 January we reopen every weekend only (Saturday & Sunday) throughout the holiday season 10.30am – 3.30pm.

We are also open for you any time at all – just give me a heads up, preferably the day before, and Dara or I will be delighted to show you Alvin’s gallery – just text or phone me 021 100 7689. We will be coming and going during January.

Have a lovely break everyone. Keep the love flowing.

Keep happy and healthy

Cheers

Ephra (and Alvin), Matthew, André, Anna, Lydia and Dara

The gallery is open on Wednesdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays 10.30 – 3 pm and on request.

Please note that we now have AFTERPAY.

https://www.pankhurst.co.nz/
Any questions email Ephra at [email protected]
or ring or text me at 021 100 7689.

12/12/2025

CELEBRATING ALVIN PANKHURST: HIS LIFE AND ART

UNWRAP A MASTERPIECE THIS CHRISTMAS
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“Where the Spirit does not work with the hand, there is no art.”
– Leonardo da Vinci
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Kia Ora,

We are offering you six beautiful 70cm signed prints for a Christmas special. Because they are signed, they do have investment value and can go to auction. Mostly we have only one left of each. They are $655 each. Remember – we do have Afterpay.

TUI
This beautiful family of tūī is a rare subject; it is unusual to see an artist portray a whole family of birds. What immediately strikes people is the tender mother-love Alvin has captured in the tūī’s eyes. For Māori, this songbird is a sacred messenger between the physical world and the spiritual realm, a guardian watching over travellers on their journeys, protecting them from danger.
He whakamaumaharatanga tēnei toi ātaahua ki te kaha me te korōria o te Taiao, o te whānau, me te aroha manaaki, tiaki hoki.
Ko ēnei Tūī he taonga maurea mō tō kāinga, hei kaitiaki e kawe ana i te rangimārie me te manākitanga.
This beautiful artwork is a remembrance of strength and glory, revealed in the natural world, in the resilience of family, and in the love that nurtures and protects.
These tūī are a cherished treasure for your home, guardians carrying peace and blessing.

FOURTH DIMENSION
Alvin so loved painting these stylish paintings from the Fox Glacier series. Is this beautiful surrealistic girl a part of the cushions or is she merging into them?

FROSTY MORNING
A much-loved romantic painting of the deep South Island hoar frosts. Artists often paint the mountains but not the glorious frosts.

ABOUT TIME
Alvin’s first and much-loved painting from his Māori series, this is Tiki the renowned warrior from Ngāti Whakaue, Rotorua. Alvin had a studio upstairs in our house at the time – when he brought the finished painting downstairs to show me, it took my breath away. Finally, I said, “Oh wow, you have done it Alvin, this is a masterpiece.” – “I know,” he said quietly. He knew it was the beginning of a series of paintings for Aotearoa close to his heart. In 2013 the About Time painting was sold for $55,000 at auction.

ALPINE MEMORIES
The first of the alpine Fox Glacier series. So simple and modern, with the classic maroon and mountain blue colours. Dreamy and evocative.

FISHING STORIES
Set in Ross Bay, West Coast of the South Island. Alvin merged the Maori and early European – he loved the shadows of the Maori who had been out fishing. “I wonder what they thought,” he always said, “the first time they must have realised something extraordinary was happening, when they saw these strange items washed up on the beach.”

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This tribute is from Doug Whitcombe
“Allie and I so fondly remember Alvin. We got to know him well when he stayed with us in our shop selling his art in Greytown. His memory lives on in his amazing art works. He was such a perfectionist, no painting was ever rushed, indicative of his creativity in every brush stroke. He is a blessing to the New Zealand art community.”

Keep happy and healthy

Cheers

Ephra (and Alvin), Matthew, André, Anna, Lydia and Dara

The gallery is open on Wednesdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays 10.30 – 3 pm and on request.

Please note that we now have AFTERPAY.

Any questions email Ephra at [email protected]
or ring or text me at 021 100 7689.

https://www.pankhurst.co.nz/