15 March, 2024

Painter who helped save Lake House building returns for retrospective

Brushwork… Tony Ogle at work in his Gisborne studio, experimenting with monotones

An artist who helped keep the Lake House in Takapuna during the 1990s returns next week for a retrospective exhibition.
Tony Ogle is exhibiting 18 works, a selection of those he’s produced since he left the North Shore, showcasing his bright and bold painting style.
Ogle rented a flat in the Lake House building in the mid-1990s when it was sited on the Takapuna beachfront.
Told by his landlord that the heritage landmark would be sold and moved off-site, Ogle hosted an End of an Era exhibition featuring works by more than 40 artists to generate interest in its plight.
The exhibition was the catalyst for the formation of the trust which campaigned for the historic house to remain in Takapuna.
The North Shore City Council eventually allocated the Fred Thomas Dr site where it has served as an arts centre since 2000.
“I developed a real liking for the property and thought this is significant history when there’s not that much history remaining in Takapuna,” Ogle told the Observer. “That’s sort of what inspired me to do something.”
Ogle, now a full-time artist in Gisborne, says 30 years after he lived in the house it felt right to return to update the community on what he’s been doing.
“I’m looking forward to reconnecting with the house and the people that I was involved with back in that time.”

Inspirational vista… Ogle lived and worked from the building that became the Lake House, enjoying its stunning views through pohutukawa from its site above Takapuna Beach. Now he is holding a restrospective exhibition of his paintings at the arts centre it has become (Left). Rangitoto view… North Shore scenes inspire Ogle to this day, decades after he moved from the area

The original paintings for many of his popular screenprints will be on display. One he intends gifting to the arts centre depicts the view of Rangitoto Island from the former Lake House site.
One of the centre’s galleries is named after Ogle in recognition of his part in the community campaign to save it.
Built in the 1890s, the building had been used for various purposes at its beachside location.
It was a hospital during the influenza epidemic of 1918-1919 and a well-known party house during the 1970s and 80s.
Ogle, who is in his mid-60s, was born and raised in Castor Bay.
He worked on the North Shore during the 1990s, from a studio at King’s Store corner, north of Devonport.
By the time renovations turning the Lake House into an arts centre were completed he had moved to Auckland’s west coast, where he built a house. He headed to Gisborne in 2009.
The ocean has been a common thread for him down the years, tying into his love of surfing.
His work often depicts the coastline in bold colours
Many of the subjects in Ogle’s work still reflect local places, including the beaches around Takapuna and Milford and the pa at Castor Bay.
“I got to know that area really well and those parts of the Shore have come through in my work.”

• Tony Ogle – Selected Works 1996-2023 is showing at the Lake House Arts Centre, at 37 Fred Thomas Dr, Takapuna. The exhibition is on from 15 to 29 March in the Ogle Gallery.

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