Don Binney Art for Sale at Auction

b. 1940 - d. 2012

Donald Hall Binney, OBE (24 March 1940 – 14 September 2012), was a New Zealand painter, best known for his paintings of birds.

Born and raised in Auckland, Binney was educated in Parnell, Auckland, taking classes with John Weeks and R B Sibson, who became his good friend and guide to the field of ornithology. From 1958 to 1961, he studied at Elam School of Fine Arts in Auckland, gaining a Diploma of Fine Arts. Binney's tutors included Ida Eisa, James Turkington, Robert Ellis and Robin Wood. In 1963, he held his first solo exhibition at Ikon Gallery, Auckland and began teaching at Mount Roskill Grammar School, where he taught until 1966.

In birdwatching, Binney said he discovered a passage into the landscape and the opportunity to develop a personal relationship with it.

Binney described himself as a figurative painter concerned with the psychic metaphor of the environment. Working in oil, acrylic, charcoal, ink and carbon pencil, many of his works depict the west coast of Auckland and Northland, containing sea, sky, native birds, still life and occasionally, figures.

Binney was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire, for services to art, in the 1995 Queen's Birthday Honours. Binney died of a heart attack while in hospital in Auckland for an unrelated illness on 14 September 2012, at the age of 72, and was survived by his second wife Philippa and daughter Mary. His first wife was the historian Judith Binney.