When BLUNT set out to collaborate with Karl Maughan, the intention was to bring one of Aotearoa New Zealand’s most distinctive paintings into motion. The result is a limited-edition umbrella that transforms the canopy into an immersive garden, placing Maughan’s unmistakable visual language into everyday life.
There are few paintings of gardens quite as recognisable as those of Karl Maughan. For Maughan, the garden has evolved into a visual language, grown over decades and born from close observation. He gathers photographic records of green spaces, from neighbours’ backyards to renowned public gardens in New Zealand and England, taking “cuttings” from these images and transplanting them into carefully constructed compositions.
The result? Layered, abundant gardenscapes that verge on the fantastical while remaining rooted in reality.
For this collaboration, the canopy design is drawn from the 2018 Rawhiti Terrace painting Maughan created for Gow Langsford. It is a careful rendering of a particular garden, half from England and half from Christchurch, layered and abundant in composition. Built through energetic brushwork, the foliage and flora verge on the fantastical while remaining rooted in observation.
“I thought it would be fun,” Maughan says of the partnership.