South Canterbury's Heritage
Preserved by Artists who painted in the Mackenzie.
South
Canterbury's Heritage
Preserved by Artists who painted in the Mackenzie.
Nineteenth
Century Artists
Under construction - Additional information appreciated. Please let me
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Twentieth Century Artists - South Canterbury, New Zealand
Ken Andrews
A former TBH pupil and a former journalist for the Timaru Herald and an artist who painted the Mackenzie landscape in oils and watercolours. His studio was at Lake Tekapo were he lived for fifteen years. He put out an incredible amount of work.
K J Andrews Old Line Cottage, Lake Tekapo Oil on board 395 x 595
Ken Andrews Lake Tekapo Church In The Snow Watercolour 360 X 530 Signed lower left
Cook House - Morven Hills situated in the heart of the scenic Lindis Pass. 40cm x 30cm oil on board
Violet I. Banks
Mt Peel from Kapunatiki
circa 1907 (Alexander Turnbull Library)
watercolour 8.3 x 15.2 cm
Mt Peel
circa 1907 (Alexander Turnbull Library)
watercolour 16.2 x 26.6 cm
Road between Peel Forest and Holnicote
circa 1907 (Alexander Turnbull Library)
watercolour 12.2 x 19.9 cm
Phyllis Drummond Sharpe Bethune, Christchurch (1889-1972)
Phyllis Drummond BETHUNE née SHARPE - was a member of "The Group" 1936 -1947. Her paintings were held by the Hocken Library and others. Mrs Bethune was from Woodbury, Geraldine, later on Christchurch. Died in Wanaka in 1983. Painted in the 1930s - 1940s.
Timaru Herald 1983
Phyllis Drummond Bethune, a prominent former South Canterbury landscape artist, died in Cromwell last week. Mrs Bethune, who was in her 80's at the time of her death, had continued to painting up until last year, when ill health forced her to give up. Trained at the Christchurch Polytechnic School of Art, Mrs Bethune painted mainly landscapes in oils. She lived in Waimate and Geraldine, and the surrounding South Canterbury countryside was the subject of her painting until she moved to be closer to her daughter in Wanaka. After she moved, she began working on the lakes and autumn scenes of the area. Mrs Bethune was a member of eh Canterbury and South Canterbury art societies, and a former president of the Waimate Art Society. She was a regular exhibitor at Otago and Canterbury society exhibitions. The Aigantighe Art Gallery [Timaru] holds one of her works "The Black Cap." Mrs Bethune is survived by a daughter.The Black Cap Winter Afternoon, Woodbury oil Aigantighe Art Gallery [Timaru] Frosty Morning on the foothills oil Lake Pukaki oil Mt Cook, from Pukaki oil on board 36x49cms Opua River, Geraldine 1943 Road from the Downs, Geraldine 1943 Autumn Landscape 1947 oil Spring Afternoon, Peel Forest 1947 Summer afternoon in the Hunter Hills 1959 oil on canvas Mt. Aspiring from Glendhu Bay - Lake Wanaka oil on canvas Cardrona River, Otago 1972 oil on board 39x60 Mount Gold Wanaka 1973 oil Anderson Park Art Gallery, Invercargill Lake Manapouri 1975 Anderson Park Art Gallery, Invercargill
Mataura Ensign 11 April 1975
Before going to live in Wanaka about eight years ago, Mrs Bethune was one of the best known landscape painters in South Canterbury. She studied painting at the Christchurch School of Art in the early 1920's, when such fine painters as Archibald Nicoll, Richard Wallwork and Cecil Kelly were teaching at the school. Before she went to the school she remembers her father, Mr Drummond Sharpe, of Woodbury, saying to a lady neighbour: "I'm worried about Phyllis, she 's dead keen to got to art school." The women replied comfortingly: "Oh don't worry, she'll grow out of it!" Now in her 70's she has not yet 'grown out of it' and paints as well as ever, her work being in great demand.
Exhibitions. Mrs Bethune has exhibited work in all the main centres and her paintings have been hung many times in the Kelliher Art competition. Her pictures are also seen in the art galleries of Invercargill, Dunedin and Timaru. She has also held successful one-man exhibitions with Abernathy's of Dunedin, and at the Timaru Art Gallery. While living in Waimate during the 1950's, Mrs Bethune founded the Waimate Art Group, which is still a flourishing body , and she was president for many years. When she came to Wanaka she was asked to start an arts group here, and it has grown rapidly, with 90 members. painters, potters and craft workers all contribute valuable work and assistance. As well as begin widely known for her true-to-life landscapes, Mrs Bethune is very well known in the district for her generous tuition and assistance to local artists. Soon after he arrival in Wanaka she held weekly art classes for those with a flare for painting. Pictured below is Mrs Phyllis Bethune, proudly exhibiting one of her favourite landscapes, which she painted during a recent excursion to Manapouri.
Self-Confidence. "Quite often self-confidence is all that is required to bring out such talents," Mrs Bethune says.
As well as giving her pupils a sense of achievement, she derives great pleasure from observing the results and consequent improvement, many of her former pupils still bring their latest paintings to her for constructive criticism and candid evaluation.
Olivia Spencer Bower, Swannanoa (1905 -1982)
Olivia was born in England in 1905. She was the daughter of the NZ born artist Rosa Spence Bower (nee Dixon.) The family came to New Zealand in 1919. She studied at the Canterbury College of Art in 1919. In 1929 she travelled to London and enrolled at the Slade School of Art. She travelled around the UK and Italy. She returned to NZ in 1931. A watercolourists and a noted portraitist. Exhibited with The Group in 1936. The first female president of the CSA in 1980.
Esther Hope in Her Studio 1938
A Mackenzie Window 1938
Mackenzie Evening. 1938
A View from the Grampians watercolour 54.50cm x 38cm
Duncan Darroch 1888-1967
Alister Austen Deans b. 1915 in Riccarton, Christchurch.
A traditional artist, not abstract, noted for his water colour paintings of the mountains of New Zealand's South Island. Many of his commissioned work is of mountain ranges. He is descended from the pioneering Deans family of Riccarton and was raised in the Malvern Hills district between Darfield and Sheffield, north of Christchurch on one of the farms that resulted from the division of the estate of Homebush Station. Educated at Medbury, Christ's College and University of Canterbury School of Art, gaining his diploma in 1938. Spent two years at Sir John Cass College. Studied at the Slade School in London. A returned soldier who saw action in the Middle East, appointed Assistant NZ War Artist, was injured (wounded) on Crete, captured, and sent to a P.O.W. hospital then a camp for the remainder of the war. He became well known, he painted in the army, first in Egypt and later in prisoner of war camps where his style and outlook underwent a complete change. He became a member of The Group in Christchurch in 1946. After the war studied art in England at the Sir John Cass College. Austen Deans lives at Peel Forest so he is an artist who is very familiar with the South Canterbury area. He once had a chalet up at Mount Cook. "I don't know why, but the back country has always fascinated me and in most cases, the higher the mountain, the more fascinating it is." His painting On the Road to Tekapo captures the view on the road to Tekapo of Mt. Cook with a cloud near the top, perfectly. He signs his work AA Deans and paints in watercolours and oils and has made a living from art since he left art school. He lived at Chawton, Geraldine and has a son Nicholas. Nick Deans became a artist, sculptures, and sold his work and paintings by his father at the Alpine Gallery, 74 South Audley, W1, England. In 1981 he travelled to Antarctica to paint. "I started painting because of wanting to learn to climb mountains, from my childhood home at Malvern I went out to study the ridges on Mt. Torlesse and made drawings of it to help myself see it a bit better in case I was able to climb to it. That's what started me off really because I found that I made quite a good job of it." he said. He began painting Canterbury landscapes at the age of twelve. In 1998 he and his brother David reached Copeland Pass when both were in their eighties. the prolific Austen Deans, whose luminous landscapes interpret the local countryside as well as any. His wife Liz died suddenly in June 2004. 2007. The Press
Pictures by Austen Deans, by A.A. Deans. A.H.& A.W.Reed 1967. First edition, 330x252mm (13" x 9 ¾"), hard covered, 64pp of heavy quality paper, 20 hand tipped-in full page coloured plates, dj, art monograph. Autobiographical account of the authors life and art. A lot of the paintings/plates in this book are of the high country.
Southern Alps watercolour 650 x 1000mm Arrowsmith Range watercolour 1010 x 650mm Road to Tekapo watercolour 2003 Mt Dobson watercolour 2003 Cloudy Peak, Rangitara Gorge oil on board 900 x 610mm Mt Peel, from Peel Forest Road oil/board 49 x 74.5 1971 Mt d'Archiac, Mt Cook NP oil/canvas 85 x 80 Peel Forest Lynn Creek watercolour 350 x 530mm signed AA Deans Mt Peel, Winter watercolour 40"X 27" 1963 Mt Peel from Ruapuna watercolour 56 x 38 cm Mt Peel from Ruapuna Oil 135 x 80 cm Little Mt Peel & the Lookout Oil 53 x 35 cm Geraldine, South Canterbury watercolour 540 x 350mm 1964 Barossa Station oil on board Glacial Remains 1964 Kea Hut and Mt Sefton 1962 South Canterbury Landscape watercolour 46 x 29 1966 (Poplars) Mountails and Fantails 1947 Mt Somers from Mt Peel watercolour 56 x 38 1996 sold $1700 Little Mt Peel Oil 53 x 35 1996 sold $1800 Totara 1947 Peel Forest Abstract 1947 The Drive, Morven 1947 The Red Hat 1947 New Zealand Native Bush oil on board 27x47 Mt Potts watercolour 660 X 350mm Across the Rangitata Oil/board 48x74 1966 Barley at Peel Forest Oil/canvas 86x121 The Gates, Matukituki Ranges Oil/board 44x53 1976 Glendhu Bay, Lake Wanaka Oil/board 95x98 Mt Peel, from Peel Forest Road Oil/board 49x74.5 1971 Geraldine Downs 760 x 620mm 1988
Water colour painting of Mt Dobson by A.A. Deans on the left with a reflection of a car window. I took the photo on the right on a August morning in 2003 before I saw the painting. I didn't have any idea he had painted the view. Taken just out of Fairlie up the Clayton Rd on Ashwick Flat. Rata Lovell-Smith painted the same view - see below.
Road to Tekapo
A.A. Deans captured the scene perfectly with the cloud hanging over the range just what we saw when heading to Tekapo from Fairlie in August 2003.
[There is a reflection on the road that should not be there due to sunlight coming in the window.]
Beatrix Dobie 1887-1945
Beatrix Charlotte Dobbie b. in Whangarei to Herbert Boucher Dobbie manager of railways in Whangarei and a citrus orchardists. In 1911 travelled to London with her friend Esther Hope to study painting. She changed her surname spelling to Dobie. She volunteered for Red Cross service in 1914 and was stationed in Malta like Esther. They both returned to New Zealand after the war. Miss Dobie exhibited regularly at the Canterbury Society of Arts, 1919-1926 and during those years painted in the Mackenzie. She illustrated the book Tutira - The Story of a New Zealand Sheep Station, the 2nd edition, reprinted with a new preface, map and index in 1926 for H. Guthrie-Smith. In 1926 she married Réné Vernon, an engineer with the French army in Tunisia. Widowed in the 1940s and Beatrix Vernon died a few years later. Her post-impressionist oil paintings feature Rotorua, Northland, Mackenzie Country, Malta and North Africa. She became known as an animal painter and in 1922 Beatrix the exhibited The Boundary Dog in Christchurch.
The Musterer - oil on canvas (15"x19")
Soult', Leading NZ sire 1903-1912 (a black stallion) oil on canvas 38X50
Sunday Star-Times 1 July 2007 Kim Knight
To cook possum stew, you must first kill your possum - a skill Mary Dobbie perfected in her pension years. Mary Dobbie's first attempt at hunting New Zealand's number one animal pest is now the stuff of her family's folklore. "Possum is just like rabbit really. You have to be careful. After you've skinned it and gutted it you have to take out a little gland which is near its tail, because it has that skunky sort of smell. I think that's what puts people off eating possum." Mary was born in London. Her parents emigrated when she was seven, moving her "delicate" older sister to the warmer climate recommended by English doctors. "When my mother first came to New Zealand and she had her first afternoon tea party to entertain the local ladies who had all left calling cards, she served thinly sliced, buttered bread. She was totally mortified to be asked back and presented with pavlova and chocolate cakes and everything under the sun." Mary prefers to be called a fortune- teller. She explains she was taught to read palms as a young girl on a boat back to the United Kingdom, by a fellow passenger and artist, Beatrix Dobie (whose nephew she would later marry). Skin and gut the possum and remove gland at base of tail. Soak in brine at least two days. Pat dry, chop into pieces, coat with flour and brown in bacon fat with onions, celery, carrot and a dab of brown sugar. Transfer to casserole dish. Deglaze pan with red wine or other, add stock and herbs (bay leaf, thyme and parsley). Casserole in a slow oven or simmer on top of pot belly for 2-3 hours, thicken with a knob of floured butter. Very tasty.
Joyce Drury
Miniaturist. Using oils on treated silk canvas, in a studio at her home in Redcliffs, Christchurch. Many of her miniatures have found their way into private collections around the world. Versatile subjects in oils. Favourite subjects range from New Zealand landscapes, hunting scenes and Clydesdale horses working in the fields, plodding along picturesque country roads, or at rest in the paddock. Joyce is a lady in her 70s and has been painting since she was 14 years old. Joyce says her paintings take as long to dry as they do to paint.
23 Bayview Road, Christchurch 8008
Contact Phone: 384 3315
Available for: Exhibition, Commissioned Work.
W. Basil Honour
1933
In the High Alps (oil)
Lake Tekapo (oil)
Winter, Lake Tekapo (oil) 1934
Snow at Tekapo (oil)
Geraldine Landscape (oil)
Esther S. Hope 1885-1975
Esther Studholme Barker was born at Woodbury, near Geraldine, South Canterbury 8 August 1885. In 1911 Esther travelled to London with her friend and artist Beatrix Dobie and entered the Chelsea and Slade College of Art in London to improve her skills and exhibit in London and Paris. During WW1 she was on Malta as a VAD nurse. After the war she came back to South Canterbury c.1919 and married Norman Hope (his father owned Raincliff) but retained her Barker artist name. She lived on 'Grampains Station' and often travelled around the Mackenzie painting. Esther exhibited regularly at the Canterbury Society of Arts. In the 1930s she was asked to submit what she thought was a suitable concept for the Church of the Good Shepherd at Tekapo and an architect drew the plans. Her original sketches have been saved. Esther made two plasticine models of the Lake Tekapo Church of the Good Shepherd. These models, which differed slightly, were forwarded for approval by a committee and one of them was adopted as the final design. The church was designed and built based on these models in 1935 by architect R.S.D Harman of Christchurch. One of the models is presumably passed onto the architect. Where are the models now? Not at the Timaru museum. The Hope collection was donated to the museum in 1954 by Arthur Hope's family. The models were seen last at the Mrs Hope's home in Sarah St., Timaru in the 1960s. Six of Esther's watercolour paintings are at the Aigantighe Art Gallery in Timaru but there are hundreds scattered around around South Canterbury.
Landscape 460 x 590 Gouache - a method of painting with opaque watercolors mixed with a preparation of gum
Mackenzie Country 1950s
Cottage at the Grampians - Gouache 290x380
The Walk to Ball Hut, Looking Towards Mt Chudleigh watercolour, 56 cm x 38 cm
Mountains and Stream (Mt Buffwash) Watercolour, 57 cm x 39 cm
Mt Cook, watercolour, signed, 380x560
Lake Alexandra, watercolour, signed, 54 x 74 cm
Coastal Fishing, watercolour, signed, 27 x 38 cm
Woodland Flowers, watercolour on board, signed, 35 x 27 cm
Southern Alps, watercolour, signed, 37 x 50 cm
Caroline Bay, gouache, signed, 30 x 40 cm
Southern Alps 55x74 Gouache/paper
The Grampians, Mckenzie Country 23.5x34cm watercolour,/paper
Path through the Native Bush 30x44cm Gouache/paper
Man on Punt near Bridge 29.5x48cm watercolour,/paper
Farmer tending his Sheep 27x37cm watercolour,/paper
Valley in Autumn 35x54cm watercolour,/paperWoodall, Kate. Esther Hope : a well kept secret, 1885-1975 / Christchurch: CSA Gallery. Catalogue of the exhibition of the same name, held at the CSA Gallery, 9 November - 5 December 1993. Includes bibliographical references.
'The Cass Gorge, water colour by E.S. Hope, about 1952 is on page 400 in Oliver A. Gillespie's South Canterbury A Record of Settlement
The dust jacket painting on Evelyn Hosken's book Life on a Five Pound Note published in 1964 of the island in Lake Pukaki was painted by Mrs Esther S. Hope.
Her sketch of the 'Rhodes Cottage at The Levels' was is featured on Oliver A. Gillespie's South Canterbury A Record of Settlement; The South Canterbury Centennial History Committee published 1958. She was also responsible for drawing the brands inside the dust jacket flap.
Pen and pencil drawings by Esther Studholme Hope that reflect early life of the Mackenzie County are found in Jenny Rayne's Mackenzie Muster "A Century of Favourites" published in 1984. This is a cookbook with gems of poetry and art. The second book Mackenzie Roundup "More of Our Favourites" published in 1992 includes sketches by Colin Wheeler of Oamaru and all proceeds are invested in the Mackenzie District Education Trust.
Timaru Herald 13 December 1997
An archeological record of human occupation in the Mackenzie district can be seen in the latest exhibition of paintings at the Aigantighe Art Gallery. Gallery director Dr Fiona Ciaran said many of the landscape paintings of the late Esther Studholme Hope, which would be shown at the gallery from Saturday, captured the changes and developments around the Mackenzie district in which she lived. "History can be seen through her paintings." Born near Woodbury, Geraldine, Hope studied art in New Zealand and at the Slade School of Art in London. Her works have been exhibited at the Royal Academy in London and at the Paris Salon - which was considered one the highest achievements for an artist at the time. Hope returned home to South Canterbury where she found her niche painting Mackenzie landscapes. Dr Ciaran believed Hope was one of the best landscape artists New Zealand had produced. The exhibition of 70 images was the first major retrospective of her work in South Canterbury. Hope's paintings will be on display at the gallery until March 1 1997.
NEGLECTED HOPE IN RETROSPECTIVE.
Sunday Star-Times 22 February 1998 By Helen Watson WHITE.
ESTHER STUDHOLME HOPE 1885-1975
Aigantighe Art Gallery, Timaru, to March 1. Reviewed by Helen Watson White
ANOTHER woman artist neglected by history is given a wide-ranging and eye-opening exhibition by a major provincial gallery. Esther Hope (nee Barker) was a contemporary of Frances Hodgkins. It is easy to see why a watercolourist was overlooked when judgments were made about which artists were to be regarded as serious and notable. A woman working in this medium, right into the 20th century, was simply an updated version of the educated girl, who would number among her accomplishments a little singing, a little playing or accompanying on the piano, a little needlework and some dabbling in the painterly arts. It is possible to read her story this way. Girlhood sketches were nothing unusual, and sketching expeditions with more experienced artists not very different from taking lessons - as Esther seems to have done from several local teachers, including Margaret Stoddart. In about 1911 she travelled to England with her parents, remaining to study art at the Chelsea Polytechnic and the Slade School of Art, then in 1915, with friends Kitty Mair and Beatrix Dobie, at the Kemp-Welch School. Travels in Europe just before the outbreak of war yielded Hodgkins-like landscapes and street scenes, hung in this retrospective with the work of her fellow-students and friends. A 1917 photograph shows her working in the studio she shared with Kitty and Beatrix, and from where she exhibited with the Royal Scottish Society and the Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolour, the Society of Women Artists, the Paris Salon and London's Royal Academy. When she returned home in 1919 and married Norman Hope, she became a partner in his large sheep station, The Grampians, in the Mackenzie Country. All that happened to her painting was that her subject(s) changed. Her technique in the medium of watercolour and/or gouache was continually worked and refined to breath-taking effect. The results of a lifetime of application are here for us to see.
Aston Greathead
He grew up in Timaru and became a sign writer. Served in the Middle East and Italy during WW2. Had no formerly lessons in painting. He likes to paint with oil acrylics as it is easier to work with than straight oils but prefers water colours. Ashton often uses only four colours and the colour of the canvas. Can paint relatively fast this way, a traditional painter. A fulltime artist with a studio in Blenheim.
The painting on the left, an Aston Greathead painting, hangs in the Hermitage,
Mt Cook on the beautiful stone
wall directly behind the fireplace, around the corner from the main entrance.
Road to the Hermitage Mt Cook Oil on board 370 x 530 Signed lower right Lake Tekapo 15x21 acrylic/cardboard 1967 Tasman Glacier 13x18 acrylic 1985 The Old Road, Mt Cook, Lake Pukaki acrylic 32 x 45 Mt Sefton from Mt Cook Station Tasman Valley acrylic 60 x 46cm Lake Pukaki - Oil on board Mt Cook 39x55 Oil/board Mt Cook and Tasman Valley Oil/board 49.5 x 75cm Tasman Glacier, Mt Cook NP Oil/board 22.5 x 52cm Malte Brun, Tasman Glacier Oil/canvas 36 x 46cm 1985 Lake Pukaki, Mt Cook Oil/canvas 44 x 117cm Lake Tekapo Acrylic/cardboard 39 x 54cm 1967 Tasman Glacier Acrylic 33 x 46cm 1985
William Greene 1872-1925
Born in Australia and came to New Zealand with his parents at age two. Studied art in New Zealand, Melbourne, and London. Established a studio in Timaru in 1894. He taught art at the Timaru Boys' High School. He was a founding member of the South Canterbury Art Society. Lecturer in art at the Teachers' Training College, Christchurch until his death in 1925. Painted many pictures of animals. 'He had a deep affection for all horses and painted of race-horse portraits, but his real affection was for the working horse'.
The 'Road Makers', oil painting, 1916 page 400 South Canterbury A Record of Settlement. Original - Aigantighe Art Gallery
New Zealand Farm and Station Verse 1850-1950 / collected by Mrs A.E. Woodhouse features two of Greene's paintings.
'Bringing in the Sheaves' oil painting 1907
'The Crest of the Hill' 1912
Timaru Centenary - 1868-1968 - Written by J.S. Parker. The dust jacket features a William Greene 1919 painting of a three horse team employed on road making. This painting is also the frontispiece.
The Christchurch Art Gallery has South Canterbury (oil)
The Unemployed 1912
The Unemployed. 1912. Oil on canvas.
(Donkeys in Caroline Bay)Timaru Herald Saturday June 8 1895 pg2
Mr W. Greene, artist, Timaru, has on view in Mr Radcliffe's shop a handsome painting. Mr Greene's forte, is portrait painting, and in painting under notice he has treated his subject ( lady in bridal robes) with skill and taste, figure and background being excellent. Mr Greene, has moved his studio to the West Town belt, and Mr Radcliffe will be pleased to give intending pupils information with respect to him.
J.A. Johnstone, Christchurch
James A. Johnstone, born in Edinburgh. He won Diploma Design and Applied Art, distinction in modelling, prize stained glass work. Has exhibited in main centres in NZ. Was on the Staff of the School of Art. Represented in 1947 Exhibition Royal Scottish Academy.
Road, S. Canterbury
A Geraldine Street
Country behind Geraldine
Afternoon, Allandale 1953
Springtime, Allandale 1953
Opihi River above Hanging Rock 1953
A.H. McLintock 1903-1968
Alexander Hare McLintock bio
John Magurk
Mount Cook - watercolour 33 x 23 cm'Mount Cook Holiday' - a book with every page either full colour reproduction of his watercolours of the area, or his black and white drawings and text. Published by A. H. & A. W. Reed [1972] in Wellington, 1st edition h/b, dj, 32 pages. 25cm.
A.G. Manson
Art master and painter. Was president of the South Canterbury Arts Club in Timaru in 1951.
Shirley O'Connor
Specialises in etchings and water colours of local areas: Mt. Cook, Tekapo and the New Zealand alpine flowers. Between From June 1992 to 2000 Shirley exhibited her art at the historic St. Patrick's Church (b. 1872) in Burkes Pass. Now 2002 Shirley resides at Tekapo.
Sketches of South Canterbury by Shirley O'Connor published by Homecrafts, Tekapo, 1980. Thirty historical sketches with commentaries by James Maxwell. Printed Timaru Herald Print. No date. 32 pages of very interesting regional buildings etc. Paperback. Card covers. Includes a sketch of Timaru library (1979).
The Story of the Church of the Good Shepherd, Lake Tekapo, New Zealand; written by Peter Hurricks, M.A., B.D; drawings by Shirley O'Connor. 1985. 16 pages.
E.C. Perry
2nd president of the South Canterbury Arts Club in Timaru in the
1950s. An English amateur watercolourist.
Albert J. Rae
(1885-1971)
Albert James Rae : an exhibition of paintings, prints and drawings : Aigantighe Art Gallery, Timaru, August-September 1987. Author : Collins, R. D. J.
Rata Lovell-Smith (1894 - 1969)
Rata Lovell-Smith nee Bird was born in Christchurch. With her husband Colin, was preoccupied with the Canterbury area and its distinct identity. Associated with the Canterbury School of Art and later ‘The Group’. She taught at the Canterbury School of Art from 1924 to 1945. Rata Lovell-Smith subscribed to the doctrine of ‘New Zealand regionalism’. She was trained at the C.U.C School of Art. Bledisloe Medallist (1939) for her work Bush Scene.
Two Thumb Range, South Canterbury (Oil on board)
44 x 34 cm
Mt. Dobson.
Mackenzie Country (oil)
The Wai-iti Stream, Woodbury (oil)
Campsite Lake Pukaki (oil on canvas)
Canterbury Landscape
Benmore Range
Colin
Vernon Wheeler born in Dunedin in 1919
Lived for a period in Christchurch before settling in Oamaru and established a reputation in the 1960s for his paintings of New Zealand farm scenes. He painted "Blue Cliffs woolshed and dipping" 1970 that is used for the dust jack for "Blue Cliffs" by A.E. Woodhouse. His career has span sixty years. He trained first at the Canterbury School of Art and then at the Camberwell School of Arts and Crafts in London. Mackenzie Roundup "More of Our Favourites" the second book by Jenny Rayne published in 1992 includes sketches by Colin and all proceeds are invested in the Mackenzie District Education Trust. The Forrester Gallery, in a fine historic limestone building, in Oamaru includes works by Colin Wheeler. In 1996 Colin was the subject of a major retrospective exhibition, An Otago Odyssey: Six Decades at the Gallery. Colin Wheeler moved to Oamaru in 1951 to become Art Master at Waitaki Boys' High School. He resigned from teaching in 1969 in order to write and paint full time. He has painted murals, written and illustrated a book on South Island sheep stations and staged numerous exhibitions. Oamaru has an abundant of Victorian architecture and limestone buildings. Wheeler has devoted time to painting the scenes around town in at least 60 paintings, Small Town Seen in 2000. His favourite subject matter includes buildings, the landscape and related activities and his well-known books chronicling the old sheep stations of New Zealand reflect this interest.
Colin Wheeler painted a
hugely popular series.
The first three books were commissioned by the publisher A.H. and A.W. Reed. The
research for these became both a labour of love and an odyssey with both he
and his wife traveling for up to twelve months at a time, staying at the old
homesteads that he portrayed.
1. Historic Sheep Stations of the South Island, 1968
2. Historic Sheep Stations of the South Island. Second series.1971
3. Historic Sheep Stations of the North Island, 1973
4. Historic Sheep Stations of New Zealand 96 p., 16p. of plates: Maps on lining papers. Includes material from Historic sheep stations of the South Island, 2 v., published 1968-1971, and Historic sheep stations of the North Island, published 1973, with some new material. Illustrations of 67 stations, with brief descriptions and historical notes. Includes index.
5. Historic Sheep Stations of New Zealand 275 p. : ill. maps. Published in 1989 by Beckett, Auckland.
Historic Sheep Stations of the South Island.
Publisher: A. H. & A. W. Reed, 1968, Hardback. DJ. 72pg, 96pg.
Large pictorial, sketches and illustrations of the farms and the peoples
lifestyle. All illustrations by author, 20 stations described including
history with b&w drawings and a magnificent print in full colour tipped in
per station, plan at rear showing stations' locations. Each station has its
own special aura and personality, compounded from the characters of the men
-- owners and station hands -- who have worked there; from the stock, the
access, the prevailing weather; and, above all, from the noble mountains
that dominate the scene.
Historic Sheep Stations of the North Island
(ISBN:0589007513)
Wheeler, Colin A H and A W Reed, Wellington, 1973. 104pp, illustrated by the
author with full-page colour illustralions, line drawings, sketches,
location maps. Twenty properties were visited in 1971 and 1972 and to each
is devoted 'one full-colour painting with special atmosphere portrayed in a
series of delightful biro sketches, a mode of expression that is the
author's particular strength.' A companion volume to the author's previous
work on the South Island's sheep stations.
Historic Sheep Stations of the South Island. Second series. 1971
Hardback. DJ.
*The South Canterbury stations
Godley Peaks Oil on board.
Stallion House
Four Peaks Oil on board
Cattle Muster on Lake Hawea oil on board
Merinos
Landscape near Benmore 1966
Mackenzie Country 1970
Kingdom in the Hills 1930s Canterbury – David McLeod
Hardback with dustjacket. 223 pages with many b&w photographs. Life in the
magnificent high country of Canterbury in the South Island. His domain
consists of two historic sheep runs, Grassmere Station and adjoining Cora
Lynn – over 60,000 acres of mountain basins, tussock hillsides and river
flats in the gorge country of the Upper Waimakariri. This beautiful realm
became his when in 1930 he bought the two runs in partnership with C. L.
Orbell. In this book the author vividly records what it was like to take up
a property at the beginning of a great economic collapse – 1930s.
Chapter title drawings by Colin Wheeler. NZ glossary for sheep dogs, seep,
plants and trees and general!
Jessie
C. Wigley
On 15 June 1910 at Timaru, Rodolph Wigley married Jessie Christie Grant, daughter of Alexander and Ellen Grant, runholders in the Mackenzie Country. In 1913 Jessie designed the company's lily motif after the giant mountain buttercup (incorrectly called the Mount Cook 'lily'.) Mrs Wigley was well known in the art circles for her watercolours of South Canterbury. Alexander Grant b. 1830 in Stirling, Scotland, purchased 'Grays Hills' in April 1881 and increased the size of the station to 60,000 acres. He and his wife retired to Timaru and had a home built, the Aigantighe, on two acres. James Grant, their son, presented the home, gardens and art collection to the citizens of Timaru in 1955.
Oliver Gillespie's South Canterbury A Record of Settlement; 1958 there is a b/w photo of Old Stone Bridge, Washdyke by J.C. Wigley about 1954, page 273 water-colour painting
A TRUE TIMARU TREASURE TURNS 50 by Claire Haren
Timaru Herald 2 September 2006
The treasure hunt has begun. The Aigantighe's 50th birthday exhibition, Treasures of the Aigantighe - the 50/50 Project, had its official opening last night. In a year, 37,000 people pass through the front door. Of those, 10,000 are international tourists who say the main reason for coming to Timaru is the Aigantighe. It is an eclectic mix of artwork - from the 17th century to the present day. Artists topping the poll included Esther Hope, Wayne Seyb and Lindsay Crooks. Those who chose the exhibition works are equally eclectic. Tradesmen, council staff, local businessmen, students, artists, gallery supporters, and descendants of the Aigantighe's original owners. It was an interesting exercise - all, says director Fiona Ciaran, knew exactly what they wanted. It was a case of first in, first served, but there were surprisingly few requests for the same artwork. It's fitting that a portrait of Helen Grant was chosen, as she is, essentially, the matriarch of the Aigantighe. The Aigantighe was her home. Built in 1908, architect James Turnbull designed the two-storey house as a retirement home for Alexander and Helen Grant, who had farmed Greys Hills Station in the Mackenzie country.
Aigantighe, pronounced "egg and tie", in Scottish Gaelic means "welcome to our home". It was fitting, then, that the couple decided they wanted the house to become a public art gallery - where all were welcome. Their wishes were shared by their daughter, artist Jessie Wigley.
Helen Grant lived in the house until she died at the age of 101. A year later, son James and his wife Lorna carried out the family's wish to hand over the property to the city, and the Aigantighe was officially opened on August 16, 1956. To bequeath the house and gardens to the community was an extraordinarily generous gift. But it was typical of Scottish philanthropy, of the thirst for education and cultural facilities. The gardens are as much a part of the Aigantighe as the house itself, and feature 13 Mt Somers stone sculptures from a 1990 symposium at Maungati. The official opening of the Aigantighe was the realisation of a long-held dream. Since the late 19th century, there had been a call for a public art gallery in Timaru. Artworks given by citizens, collected by the South Canterbury Art Society, and purchased through public subscription, had hung in the town's library, awaiting a permanent home. Those works, accompanied by the Grant family's own collection, were to form the nucleus of the Aigantighe's holdings. In 50 years, the collection has grown to around 2000 works, and the Aigantighe now owns the third-largest public art museum collection in the South Island. There have been many changes. A photograph of the 1956 opening shows a dark sea of adults in suits and hats. Today there is colour, and there are children. A playpen is provided. There are colourful fairy, clown and jester costumes, and Victorian dress-ups that mirror some of the works in the extensive Victorian collection. School holiday programmes encourage children to roam the gallery on an art hunt. In term time, students park their skateboards in the porch and drop by after school. It's exactly the sort of attitude Dr Ciaran wants to foster. "My philosophy is that every child should grow up thinking that going to their local public art museum is just a way of life." Community features strongly. There are five community exhibitions at the Aigantighe each year - Plunket, Polychrome (polytechnic students), Artarama! (high school students), the South Canterbury Art Society, and the South Canterbury Pottery Society. Around 200 South Canterbury artists have their work on show each year, and the Aigantighe usually holds about 20 exhibitions every year -- local, national and international. The Aigantighe qualifies as an art museum because of its permanent collection. But it prides itself on the fact that at any given time, half the gallery is devoted to showing those works, and interpreting them. Considerable effort goes into informative labels - well beyond the artist's name, a date, and the media.
The Aigantighe boasts four McCahons, five Goldies, and works by Frances Hodgkins and Toss Woollaston. Victorian art, South Canterbury and New Zealand works, Japanese prints, decorative arts and sculpture also feature in the gallery's extensive collection. It is a small staff charged with its care. Under her charge, Dr Ciaran has an exhibitions curator, a collections curator, a part-time technician and two part-time weekend staff. An enthusiastic and loyal team of around 10 volunteers pick up the slack, and all are supported by a 300-strong Friends of the Aigantighe. The gallery operates on a budget of $366,000. Considerable networking, charm and persuasion are used to maximise that money. Within that budget, $9000 is allocated to purchase art. That's enriched by donations of artworks - many gained by the gallery's reputation. Elizabeth Loxton recently donated a number of works by her late husband, landscape artist John Loxton. "She just thought of all the galleries in New Zealand we were doing the best job ... and she had looked," Dr Ciaran said. "The Maori word is kaitiaki - guardian of the treasures (the taonga). And it very much is that. This is for everybody, for now and the future. We're honouring the past, incorporating the present, and keeping these things for the future."
Timaru Herald 4 December 2004
A family with integral links to the Aigantighe Art Gallery is again ensuring its success continues. The Wigley family members, whose family originally gave the city its art gallery, have given $30,000 towards the conservation of 45 paintings, which were also donated by them over the years. James Grant gave Timaru the Aigantighe and in 1956 it was opened as city's art gallery. Mr Grant and his wife Lorna, along with his sister Jessie Wigley (a keen artist) donated many New Zealand and Scottish paintings which helped form the nucleus of the gallery's collection. Yesterday Dick, Patty and Barbara Wigley, the son and daughters of Jessie, along with two of her grandchildren Annabel and Michael, met with gallery director Fiona Ciaran to view some of the works which will conserved. Fiona said it was a gallery's dream come true to have benefactors prepared to contribute to conservation. "We're delighted to see the Grant-Wigley family continuing to support Aigantighe, following Hester Wigley's recent bequest." Galleries always struggle to get funding for conservation of paintings, which is an essential part of our work, she said. Barbara said it was wonderful to see the collection and help preserve it for future generations, something that would have been important for her late husband, Sandy Wigley. Dick said they were proud of what their uncle, aunt and mother had done with Aigantighe and they would be very pleased with the result. "It's great to see it so well looked after and developed by the city, Fiona and her team." Annabel said they realised galleries relied on public funding but could not get by without private support as well. "We are the next generation coming through and we think it's important to support the gallery and and its collection." Michael said the gallery and its collection were top notch and art had special significance to him.
Other newspaper items:
- Aigantighe - The ruby celebration Jessie Wigley - South Canterbury artist and patron Press (Christchurch) 26 June, 1996
- Gallery marks 40 years of exhibitions. Timaru Herald 29 June 1996. Guild
- South Canterbury gallery celebrates 40 years. Press (Christchurch) 3 July, 1996
- Unique blends. Press (Christchurch) 3 May, 2000. Keast.
Miss Cora Wilding, (also known as Hilda Blanche) (1888 - 1982) of Christchurch
Attended Canterbury School of Art, where she studied under Sydney Lough Thompson and Frances Hodgkins, before leaving for further study in England and Paris. She was a pioneer physiotherapist and social activist in the causes of clean air, open-air schools and buildings and children's health camps. She is recognised as one of New Zealand's first qualified physiotherapists and for both her involvement as a health camp organiser and founded both the Sunlight League and the Youth Hostels Association of New Zealand. She found an ally in Sir Arthur Dudley Dobson, President of the Automobile Association. The Sunlight League of New Zealand was inaugurated in Christchurch on 14 May 1931 The inaugural meeting was held at "Fownhope", Opawa, the home of Miss Cora Wilding. Together, under the umbrella of the Sunlight League, the pair led the early years of the YHA in New Zealand. The League established the first health camp, at Geraldine, and in 1932 began the sale of health stamps for the permanent funding of health camps. After retiring in 1952, Wilding founded the Kaikoura Art Group. Wilding's works are held in the collections of the Hocken Library, Robert McDougall Gallery and the Rotorua Museum. She is the sister of Anthony Wilding the tennis player.
Merinos, Mackenzie Country
Autumn, Tekapo River
Mt Cook, from Tekapo
Autumn, Lake Tekapo
The natural scenery of South Canterbury is bold and beautiful.
Aigantighe (pronounced egg and tie) Timaru's public art gallery, established in 1956 has a rich collection of New Zealand works. South Canterbury historic and contemporary art holdings includes works by Ainslie Manson, Duncan Darroch, Esther Hope, Rick Lucas, Sandie Davies, Mike Armstrong, Mike Deavoll, Polly Rowe, Trudy Mulligan, Peter McIntyre, Eddie Poulston, Margriet Windhausen, Trevor Askin, Wayne Seyb, Jessie Wigley, Angela Gunn (1961-95), Christeena MacDonald, Anne Chapman, Pat Foster, Austen Deans and Jacqueline Fahey profile. The Art Gallery has three works by Colin McCahon, who was born in Timaru in 1919 and died 1987 and there are plans for extensions which will include a McCahon room. He studied at Dunedin School of Art from 1937-1939, but was mostly self-taught. bio Gouache on paper
Autumn Poplars by Angela Gunn.1990. Acrylic on canvas.
W.
Toss Woollaston 1910-1998 was a regular visitor to
the Aigantighe, and the museum has two of his paintings. A landscape painter
with a modern approach featuring bold areas of calligraphic brushwork and strong
colouring so landscape forms merge. He first exhibited in Christchurch with
The Group in 1936 when
he lived in Nelson. He says he came from the backwoods into an academic orbit and was
suffocating there when a Group show and revived! Retired again to the
country but exhibited regularly. bio
Sage Tea; an autobiography by Toss Woollaston. Soft cover, 268 pages. Reprinted in 2001. Published by Te Papa Press.
South Canterbury artists : a retrospective view, 3 February-11 March 1990.
Aigantighe Art Gallery in association with South Canterbury Arts Society,
?1990 69 p. : ill. ; 30 cm. Includes biographical notes on artists. Includes catalogue of works.
Throughout South Canterbury arts and craft shops are found. Try Peel Forest, Kimbell, Tekapo and the Arcade in Timaru. There were many artists, in the past and today, which painted or paint in watercolours or oils as a hobby for home and family.
Hint: When ordering a second hand book ask if it comes with the dust jacket and endpapers. Sometimes the DJ and maps are removed for framing. Many books on local history have dust jackets with a photograph of a fine watercolour or oil painting.
Hint: The Antiques Roadshow Phenomenon is not an
unknown phenomenon.
On the Antiques Roadshow there was an episode where they removed the nails
holding a painting into its frame and found another, older painting or
lithograph print behind it. People would reuse cardboard from older works to
brace newer ones. As a backing board for the oil painting it probably protected
the print from the ravages of time and the print is probably worth more than the
painting.
"The high country still echoes with the mythologies of the high country pastoral pioneers, a lifestyle that has been captured by artists Colin Wheeler and Peter McIntyre, and writers from Samuel Butler to James K. Baxter. It is part of this nation's heritage, a history of nor'westers, woolsheds, cribs and camp ovens which is still a vital part of the South Island story." SB 2004
The Kelliher: This volume gathers together the 67 Kelliher Award winning paintings, the work of 39 of New Zealand's most popular artists from 1956 to1977. Including Peter McIntyre, Douglas Badcock, Colin Wheeler, Austin Deans and Owen Lee.
As our country changes so naturally does the music, literature and arts created to celebrate it. In the early days we relied on ideas from Britain and America and slowly it became much more about our own identity. Photographers, painters, and singers all look to their landscape and the people in it for inspiration. Environmental awareness had bought a new fragility to the arts. We used to perceive the world as something we could not change. Now we are intensely aware of just how fragile it is and what we have done to it, said Professor Colin Gibson, at Timaru, 22 July 2007.
The Concise Dictionary of New
Zealand Artists, by Kate McGahey.
Fine Art
Auction CHCH
South Canterbury
NZGenWeb Project
