Paul McLachlan, a multi-media artist, MFA (Distinction) University of Canterbury, lives in Mataura. He has exhibited in Bangkok, Italy and New Zealand. He is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Jury Prize (Wallace Art Awards 2018) and the Ethel Susan Jones Scholarship (University of Canterbury 2013). His work is held in public and private collections, including the Waikato Museum, Hocken Library, Canterbury University, Pataka Art + Museum, American Embassy in Wellington, Eastern Southland Gallery, Venice Printmaking Studio Collection, Italy and the Guanlan International Collection, China.

Previously Paul McLachlan worked to considerable acclaim across various disciplines by producing prints, large scale tapestries and drawings. In 2020, he pioneered an entirely unique and new way of working delivering multi-layered works which are part-painting, part-engraving.

Utilising the chromatics and tonal modulations of colour, as well as light-strike brush presence, the immediately apparent visual simplicity belies the fascinating complexity of his works. The deeply recessed surfaces build compelling visual rhythms in the expressive gesture of line alongside rising and falling dynamics. Exploring the architecture of landscapes and forests, McLachlan imbues his work with spiritual, humanist and environmental presences and narratives. Travelling across time, in and out of myth, demonstrating considerable ecological concerns, McLachlan has developed and emerged with a profoundly new way of working and a visual language entirely his own.