Art Gallery and Sculptures

Efil Doog

Seeing Efil Doog's outdoor exhibition is a special experience. The display is a careful mixture of large pieces covering 11 acres of discreetly designed gardens and park which affords a marvellous setting for a splendid assembly of major works by New Zealand and international artists.
Because of its open-air location, its size and sculptural focus, Efil Doog has no equivalent in New Zealand. It has the benefits and spaciousness of an authentic rural landscape and avoids the spacial constraints of the urban. Works which are displayed outside undergo endless changes of light and shadow and the advancing years of the surrounding trees and shrubs continually redetermine their appearance and cast in the landscape.
The excitement of the Efil Doog sculpture collection is the ongoing discourse between nature and the art, the endless changes of light and shadow, and the ingenuity and imagination of the creators - the artists.

Nestled in the spacious garden the art gallery hosts a fine collection of early New Zealand original paintings by important New Zealand artists such as Frances Hodgkins, Charles Goldie, John Steele, Margaret Stoddard, James Nairn, Dorothy Kate Richmond, Elizabeth Kelly, Claus Fristrom, Isobel Field, Mina Arndt, William Baker, Alfred O'Keefe and many others.
This is a unique opportunity to combine your interest in the beauty of the garden with the glory of our rare early New Zealand painters and the imaginative renditions of our present Polynesian and other sculptors.

"The masterpiece should appear as the flower to the painter-
perfect in its bud and in bloom-
with no reason to explain its presence-
no mission to fulfil."
James McNeill Whistler, 1890.

Each year Efil Doog attracts many visitors from all over the world. Here are some of their comments -

"Seen on a spring day instantly captures the imagination and the heart"

"Enchantment pervades this matchless garden"

"A stunning combination of garden, paintings and sculptures all in a tranquil setting"

"Serenity. Eden all over again"