Some of the best rural locations in the Bay of Plenty and New Zealand are the inspiration behind Graham ‘Mr G' Hoete's latest project.

The local artist has been working on a book of 100 portraits painted on old buildings throughout the country.

Recently, he took a quick break to paint a shed at the Papamoa Pony Club.

'I'm living in Papamoa at the moment, and I've always driven past the shed. I went in one Saturday and asked if I could paint a portrait of one of their horses on the side,” says Mr G.

'I went up to one of them called Cloud, ridden by a young girl. She was stoked I chose her horse. Pretty much painted it that afternoon. Had a lot of locals popping over to see what I was doing.”

He says the wall was 'just screaming” at him, and he knew he had to paint something on it.

'It's such a nice little location. You've got the beach just on the other side. It's right in Papamoa, but still looks a bit old and obscure.”

It's exactly the kind of old building that draws his attention, and which will make up the majority of images in his planned book. He put the call out late last year for people with interesting stories to paint, and since then he's been inundated with requests.

Now, he has to plan hard and work out how to approach all of them.

'The main thing is trying to nut out the itinerary. It's going to take a while; I'm not going to try and smash it out. I don't want to rush the locations. I've got around 50 locations locked in with good stories now.”

Mr G's painting in Ohakune.

He plans to enjoy the journey and not rush to the destination. But he's definitely been chipping away at it.

'My most recent one was done in Ohakune. I had Mount Ruapehu in the background. It was such a beautiful location. It was an old shed of one of the locals who had passed.”