It was one of the best days this year for me:  walking along the vast, luminous west coast beach with jeweller Alan Preston.

He strolled, collecting shells with an eye on the tide and recalled Colin McCahon’s influence on his work, White Foreshore.  McCahon’s years at Muriwai are reflected in his remarkable series of paintings including Walk (Series C).  We were filming Preston for Te Papa’s Bone Stone Shell which brings together the original works from the 1988 exhibition and recent work by Preston and other contemporary jewellers using local and found materials.  The result is a show of beauty and power that is uniquely New Zealand.

Immerse yourself in Bone Stone Shell and Colin McCahon’s extraordinary painting Walk (Series C) at Ngā Toi Arts Te Papa to July 2014.