Angus Watson’s annual exhibition in January
Angus Watson has been painting colourful artworks for 35 years now. His annual exhibition will take place in January at his home studio in Dalefield, showcasing his vibrant striking artworks. He loves to welcome people to come see his art and is looking forward to another year.
He enjoys playing with colours, putting one beside another to bounce off and make a stronger effect. Often these effects are surprising even to himself, saying that generally his hand is ahead of his brain. There’ll be about 25 works on display of an array of different subjects – from animals and people to landscapes and everything in between.
“I painted all my life really, but one woman in particular wanted me to paint her hens for her, then someone else wanted something else, and now I’ve done all sorts of different things,” Watson says.
Before he turned his passion into his fulltime profession, Watson owned an audio-visual museum in Queenstown on the Gold Rush. It included listening to a soundtrack as you wandered through the exhibition. In one of the rooms, you’d walk into a ‘gold mine’ with all the sound effects you’d expect to hear.
“I always found them interesting – and I did that for 12 years. People would come in and they would go through the show, and get their photo taken in old-fashioned clothes.”
When he was running the museum, he was still painting as often as he could, and now does so daily. The colours he uses are always inspired by the subjects – his biggest advice is that you don’t have to be afraid of colours, just jump in.
“I often go to a place and do a quick sketch of what I’ve seen and then I take a photo, and then I come back and make the colours up. When I paint the real colours, they don’t look very good.”
He’s spent a fair bit of time in Fiji and Samoa painting the beauty around him – although he admits sometimes there’d be more holidaying and less painting happening. While he’s always looking for subjects, he explains that the subject is just something to hang a bit of colour on.
“A colour, just by being a colour, makes you either feel good or something, so you’re halfway there before you even put an image on. I know various colour combinations work.”
His paintings are all around the world, sold online or to visitors passing by the gallery and then taking the work back home. He loves being an artist in Queenstown though – people on holiday are in the right frame of mind to buy art, and it’s a lovely reminder of happy times. He paints year round, the exhibition is always on his mind.
“When people come in, they generally hone in on the ones that are the favourites, because there’s something about them. You just keep on doing it. I’m always working towards the Christmas edition – it gives me a sense of purpose.”
The annual exhibition will run from Saturday, 3 January until Wednesday, 13 January from 10am – 5pm daily at Watson’s home studio, 355 Littles Road. If you’d like to check out more of his work, order a 2026 calendar, or learn more about the exhibition, head to anguswatson.com
