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Errol Ronald Allison, who had a prolific career sculpting the iconic symbols of Gore and Southland, was much like the quirky, larger-than-life monuments he created.
Allison designed the Gore trout in the 1980s, the town’s Romney ram in the early 1990s, the Hands of Fame statue in the early 2000s and had countless other cartoons, caricatures and paintings to his name.
Allison, known as Pearly Al, died in Gore Hospital on August 15 at the age of 83.
He not only put Gore on the map with his artworks, but he also embodied the eccentric imprint they left on the town.
“You can’t drive around the community without seeing something that he’s done,” his stepdaughter Nicky Ashby said.
He was also truly unique in what he created and the legacy he left behind, she said.
“He would hold the centre of attention . . . people gravitated towards him.”
Eastern Southland gallery curator Jim Geddes, who had worked with Allison over the past 30 years, said he was multifaceted.
“He was a realist artist, but he wasn’t scared of experimenting . . . his legacy is going to live on for generations,” Mr Geddes said.
Allison was born in Wyndham to John and Hazel Allison on December 1, 1942, and attended Edendale School from the age of 5 to 12.
From the age of 13, he studied a three-year art course at Southland Technical College, now known as the Southern Institute of Technology (SIT).
At 14, Allison won a poster competition and was awarded a free air trip to Christchurch from the National Airways Corporation.
His career blossomed from there.
From 1964, Allison worked in commercial art for an advertising agency in Wellington, for three years, until he was 25.
In 1968 and 1969, he worked in Australia producing fabricated sculptures, including casting, or moulded sculptures and produced murals.
He juggled freelance work with a year in the Merchant Navy in 1967, and then returned to Wellington to work in advertising, which included a six-month contract with Coca-Cola.
In 1971, he founded Allison Signs, a signwriting business based in Irwell St, Gore.
One of Allison’s apprentices at the business, Jim Marshall,who acquired the venture in 1984 under the name Sign Advertising, said Allison was generous.
He would support teenagers who brought their cartoon drawings into him and work for more hours than he was paid for, especially when he worked on the trout, he said.
Mr Marshall said they often had bets, which included racing their cars, trying to beat each other running around the Gore Racecourse and competing to see who could reach the top of the ladder or scaffolding first.
“I’m sitting here smiling to myself thinking of him and all the fun we had,” Mr Marshall said.
In the 1980s Allison designed the celebrated 1130kg, nine metre-high fibreglass trout statue, which publicised Gore as the trout-fishing capital of the world.
It was modelled in plaster and based on a trout that was caught from the Mataura River by local fisherman Bert Harvey.
The brown trout was frozen, so Allison could make a template of the ribcage, and twisted it into its shape to birth the ultra-realistic monument.
He captured the boyish charm of Sergeant Dan in the artwork on the side of the Creamota Mill, erected in the 1980s in Mersey St.
The artist co-designed Speight’s Southern Man — the signage that was emblazoned on the brewery’s trucks from 1991.
In 1992, Allison created three art panels to mark the opening of the West Otago Community Centre.
He designed the original surfer statue in Colac Bay in 1999, which had stood for over 25 years.
In that same year, he restored a stained glass window for the new Gore hospital.
Between 1998 and 2000, Allison hand-painted a Dunsdale bush scene in the Gore Old Hokonui Museum and Distillery.
His stepson Johnny Delahunt said he would light up any room he entered and was equally determined.
He would hold the centre of attention and people would gravitate to him.
“When he got something major [to] do . . . he put his heart and soul into it.”
Ms Ashby said Allison had original ideas and unwavering artistic talent.
“The way he perceived something that he’d paint, other people would . . . wonder where it had come from,” she said.
He had a great sense of humour and would often do cartoon caricatures of people and always had a funny joke or story, he was always the life of a party, she said.
In 2005, at the age of 63, Allison opened his own studio and gallery, Errol Allison Studio and Gallery, in Hokonui Dr .
Allison was also a passionate sportsman who loved loved rugby, captained the Gore Squash Club, had won boxing titles and competitions in his youth and enjoyed bowls.
However, above all, his main love was his late partner Joan Delahunt and family.
He helped build two of his own homes in Gore and was fond of his vegetable garden.
He is survived by his children Jacki and Richard Allison and his stepchildren Vicki Gillan, Johnny Delahunt, Nicky Ashby, Michael and Janine Delahunt, his 10 grandchildren, 14 great-grandchildren and their extended families.
gemma.sinclair@alliedmedia.co.nz