Sir Grahame Charles Sydney KNZM (born 1948) is a New Zealand visual artist, based in the South Island region of Central Otago.
[1] Since beginning his professional art life in 1974 he has worked as a painter (in egg tempera, oil and watercolour), printmaker (etching and lithography), photographer and writer.
Born in Dunedin in 1948, the youngest of three children, Sydney gained a degree in English and Geography at University of Otago.
In 1971 he began work as a secondary school teacher, and after two years spent time in London and Europe before returning to begin his career as an artist in May 1974.
[3] His subject matter focuses largely on the sparse elements of human impact on Otago's empty landscapes and the loneliness of individuals in this remote setting.
Sydney's works have drawn comparisons with such artists as Edward Hopper, Vilhelm Hammershoi, Christopher Pratt and Andrew Wyeth but his images are saturated with a profound sense of the New Zealand south.