Not too many people fall in love with a vehicle which came close to running them down – but then there's nothing ordinary about either the truck or Peter Grant.

Seventeen years ago Peter was travelling on an old Enfield motorcycle in Pakistan when a truck, the like of which he had never seen before, came close to terminating his journey.

Instead, that near miss set him off on another trip entirely. 'I was completely entranced by the truck art of Pakistan and decided I had to document it and share it with the rest of the world,” says commercial photographer and Waipu resident Peter Grant, now the proud owner of his own art truck. The former International St John Ambulance, which Peter had painted in New Zealand by Pakistani truck artist Younus Nawaz, was on display at Fieldays in June. However, before Younus painted his truck, Peter had visited Pakistan four times to learn about and document truck art and Pakistan's culture. That culminated in two photographic exhibitions in New Zealand, in the Pataka Art+ Museum, Porirua, in May and at Auckland's Depot Artspace in June. 'I've never seen commercial or public transport vehicles decorated like this. They are stunning and often more is spent on the artwork than the vehicle itself.” Peter says the trend dates back centuries to when art was used to decorate everyday items, including the harnesses and trappings of camel trains on the Silk Road. The modern version came about when truck drivers made the long journeys from the Port of Karachi to northern Pakistan and Afghanistan. 'When they stopped the drivers would often doodle drawings of their ideals of paradise, and truck owners began to use those images to decorate their vehicles to make them standout, and be more appealing to customers. They also believed it might make the trucks luckier.” Decorations can cover every part of vehicles and often include elaborate ‘fringes' around front and sides. The art is as distinctive as the artist – but every truck has an eye to ward off evil and all feature symbols of peace and harmony. 'It seems strange to us that in a country we so often associate with unrest, there are so many symbols of peace; and that the normal greeting is in fact a wish for peace.” Peter's truck has uniquely New Zealand themes, including a kiwi on each door, wolf-like sheep, and a tui, along with a landscape reminiscent of a South Island lake. 'Younus said he had always dreamed of such a paradise and then he found it in New Zealand.”
Peter has his own photographic
business Pix & Flix – and but at Fieldays it was Peter and his truck which were the focus of the lenses and cellphone cameras.