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 know about artists that you would like to see
featured on this website. Thanks. Email
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)
watercolour8.3 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 (1898 -1983)
Phyllis Drummond BETHUNE nee 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 the 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 Opuha 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 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 Canterbury, 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. She returned to live in Canterbury in 1949 and focused on painting her garden. From the early 1970s portraits gained more prominence.
The first female president of the CSA in 1980. Died in Christchurch.
Esther Hope in Her Studio 1938
A Mackenzie Window 1938
Mackenzie Evening. 1938
The Untidy Verandah water colour on paper
Still Life Jug - watercolour on paper [opens in a new window]
Same background as above The jug 'Esther Hope's Jug' was featured in many of Esther Hope's paintings.
A View from the Grampians watercolour 54.50cm x 38cm (above)
This watercolour was painted from the window of Esther Hope's cottage. The mountains in the background are The Grampians with Mt Cook in the background there sticking up like a sore thumb has the same background as the Still Life Jug painting.
Road to Mount Sefton (c.1934) Drawing-Watercolour on paper (38 x 54 cm)
Mount Cook Drawing Watercolour on paper (28 x 32 cm)
Duncan Darroch 1888-1967
Alister Austen Deans b. 1915 in Riccarton, Christchurch. L/Cpl, 20 Bn, M.E., P.O.W., 22 May 1941; Wounded. Father of seven sons including Paul, a painter, farmer and a backwoodsman. O.B.E., 1995. Author of Pictures by Austen Deans.
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, 1930 - 1933, and University of Canterbury School of Art, gaining Dip.Fine Arts(N.Z.) in 1939. Studied at the Slade School in London. He got the job of painting the Greek campaign in the role of assistant war artist to Peter McIntyre. His mother, who had been widowed by Passchendaele [Alexander], was particularly keen her son be given the job. A returned soldier who saw action in the Middle East with the 20th Battaltion, appointed Assistant NZ War Artist, was wounded in the Battle of Crete, captured, and sent to a P.O.W. hospital then a camp for the remainder of the war. Supplies of painting material came through the Red Cross. 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. At the end of the war, after liberating himself from an Austrian POW camp with the help of a fellow prisoner, a bunch of their mates, and an appropriated German truck, Deans returned home. He married Liz in 1946, travelled to England and studied art at the Sir John Cass College (1948-50) before returning home and settling into his Peel Forest farm. He became a member of The Group in Christchurch in 1946. 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. The painting was what kept the family going, Deans maintains, but the farm, 5212 hectares, added the luxury items. Austen Deans was raised on the family farms, Morven Hills, near Sheffield, then Homebush, and educated at schools for the well-heeled Cantabrian, Medbury, then Christ's College, before achieving his diploma (1938) from the University of Canterbury School of Art. "We lived off the painting. The farm managed to produce enough money to take us all on skiing holidays in September, and it paid for a certain amount of petrol and things like that." he said in the Press 24/10/2007. 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. In 2007 and at the age of 92-year-old he is now a guide at Peel Forest which he calls "an oasis at the end of the Canterbury Plains."
Pictures by Austen Deans, by A.A. Deans. A.H.& A.W.Reed 1967. First edition, 330x252mm (13" x 9 ?"), 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 Cloudy Peak, Rangitara Gorge oil on board 900 x 610mm Mt d'Archiac, Mt Cook NP oil/canvas 85 x 80 Peel Forest Lynn Creek watercolour 350 x 530mm signed AA Deans 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 Mountails and Fantails 1947 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 Orari Gorge oil on canvas 122x98.5cm 1956 Bush clad hills, Peel Forest 1957 Oil Aigantighe Kea Hut and Mt Sefton 1962 Mt Peel, Winter watercolour 40"X 27" 1963 Geraldine, South Canterbury watercolour 540 x 350mm 1964 Barossa Station oil on board Glacial Remains 1964 Glacier Oil on board 25.0 x 28.0 cm 2008 sold $300 South Canterbury Landscape watercolour 46 x 29 1966 (Poplars) 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 Mt Peel, from Peel Forest Road oil/board 49 x 74.5 1971 The Orari River & Mt Peel Watercolour 25.0 x 47.0 1984 in 2009 est. $2,500 - 3,500 Geraldine Downs 760 x 620mm 1988 Mt Somers from Mt Peel watercolour 56 x 38 1996 sold $1700 Little Mt Peel Oil 53 x 35 1996 sold $1800 Road to Tekapo watercolour 2003 Mt Dobson watercolour 2003 Sheep near Fairlie watercolour 2007 Snow at Peel Forest watercolour 2007
Water colour painting of Mt Dobson by A.A. Deans on the left with a reflection of window at Mt John Homestead
The photo on the right out 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. See Rata's painting of same scene, Mt Dobson.
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.]Austen Dean's said the most memorable year of his life was 1939: "I had finished my studies at the School of Art and I was getting to my feet and realising that art really was my passion and that I wanted to paint and to be an artist full-time."
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 R. 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")
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.
William Greene 1872- Dec. 1925
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
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 in 1920 (his father owned Raincliff) but retained her Barker artist name. Norman Hope had purchased The Grampians in 1914. She lived on 'Grampians 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
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 Alexandrina, watercolour, signed, 54 x 74 cm
Lake Alexandrina watercolour 315 x 490mm
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, Mackenzie 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,/paper
View of MacKenzie County, NZ 53.x73 cm. Drawing-Watercolour on paper
Woodall, 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.
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.
The Story of the Church of the Good Shepherd, Lake Tekapo, New Zealand; written by Peter Hurricks; drawings by Shirley O'Connor. 1985
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. audio
Two Thumb Range, South Canterbury (Oil on board) 44 x 34 cm
Mt Dobson -Rata Lovell-SmithMackenzie Country (oil)
The Wai-iti Stream, Woodbury (oil)
Campsite Lake Pukaki (oil on canvas)
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 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
Aigantighe was built in 1908 to the design of architect James Turnbull (1864-1947) for the retirement home of Alexander and Helen Grant (1854–1955) of Gray's Hill Station in the Mackenzie. After the death of Helen Grant in 1955, her son gifted the property to Timaru as an art gallery in accordance with the wishes of his mother and his sister, Jessie Wigley, the artist. Helen, born in Scotland, lived there until her death at age 101. Hours: Tuesday-Friday, 10.00am - 4.00pm; Saturday-Sunday, 12.00 - 4.00pm. Free admission. A portrait of Helen Grant was given to the Aigantighe in 1998 by Hester Wigley, Helen Grant’s granddaughter, painted by Archibald Nicoll, b. Lincoln, Canterbury, NZ. He studied at the Canterbury College School of Art in Christchurch and in 1911 studied art in London and Edinburgh. In 1918 Nicoll began teaching art at the Wellington Technical College and he also started a portrait studio. Nicoll painted over 100 society portraits including this one. Some painters with Scottish connections represented at the art gallery:
William Brown (1863-1936)
Wm Menzies Gibb (1859-1931)
Helen Paxton-Brown (1876 - 1956)
Jessie Wigley (1880-1968)
Wm Macleod (1892- 1963)
Alexander McBride (1859 - 19550
Hannah MacGoun (1831-1911)
Dr A.H. McLintock (1903-1968)
Sir Wm Russell Flint(1880 - 1969)
Tom Esplin (1915-2005)
Wm Ferrier (1855- 1920)
Thomas Hunt (1854 - 1929)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. Friends bio Gouache on paper
Autumn Poplars by Angela Gunn.1990. Acrylic on canvas.
Cora Wilding, Christchurch
Merinos, Mackenzie Country
Autumn, Tekapo River
Mt Cook, from Tekapo
Autumn, Lake Tekapo
The natural scenery of South Canterbury is bold and beautiful.
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 exhibited in Christchurch in 1936 when he
lived in Nelson. First exhibited in Christchurch with The Group in 1936. 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
Ben's Art
South Canterbury NZGenWeb Project
