Tony Rice Artist

“It is not to be despised in my opinion, if, after gazing fixedly at a spot on the wall, the coals in a grate, the clouds, the flowing stream: if one remembers some of their aspects; and if you look at them carefully you will discover some quite admirable inventions...” - Leonardo da Vinci, Treatise on Painting

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An Artist Inspired by the Accidental

This quotation from Leonardo’s Treatise on Painting has long inspired Tony Rice to throw off the restraints of traditional art and embrace the accidental - both as a point of imaginative departure and as a pathway to finished works.

Careful not to let his imagery or techniques become formulaic, Tony works across different media and scales, often avoiding conventional painters’ tools. Although he paints in a purely abstract mode dealing with shape, form, colour and texture for what they are rather than what they represent - his process of selection often evokes the natural world, echoing land, sea and sky.

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Background and Journey

Liverpool-born artist Tony Rice studied at the Manchester Regional College of Art before teaching in England and later emigrating to New Zealand, where he now lives and works in Wanaka.

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His work has been exhibited in major galleries across the U.K., Europe and New Zealand, including:

• British Contemporary Art Exhibition

• Northern Young Artists

• Liverpool Academy

• John Moores Exhibition of Contemporary Art – Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool

• Salford City Art Gallery

• Granada TV Studios, Manchester

• CSA Gallery, Christchurch

• Moray Gallery, Dunedin

 

Tony’s paintings are held in private collections both in New Zealand and internationally.

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Artistic Approach

In Tony’s work, the process itself becomes the subject. Accidental marks, textures and interactions of material are not corrected but explored - guiding the painting toward its own resolution. His pieces often begin in abstraction yet arrive at compositions that subtly suggest landscapes, movement, or shifting atmospheres.

Through this approach, Tony invites the viewer to interpret freely, finding their own sense of place within the forms and textures of each work.

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Studio and Practice

Working from his studio in Wanaka, Tony continues to explore the tension between control and chance, between the deliberate hand and the unexpected outcome. His paintings are both meditative and experimental, grounded in the act of observation and discovery.​