PHOTO
A new exhibition at Gore’s Eastern Southland Gallery brings together a selection of paintings by Dunedin artist, Patricia France and poems by Paekākāriki poet, Dinah Hawken.
France (1911–1995) began painting in her 50s while living at Ashburn Hall, a psychiatric residence in Dunedin. Her psychiatrist suggested she “paint out the past’’ as a way of confronting the stresses in her past life that had caused her breakdown.
For France, this was life-transforming, and she became a dedicated artist, exhibiting regularly over the next 30 years and developing strong friendships with fellow artists.
Hawken, an award-winning poet, said she first saw France’s paintings in 1993, “around the time I discovered that Patricia was a relation of mine — my father’s cousin”.
“The two pale-faced girls in the painting I bought at the exhibition have had a central place and a strong presence in our home ever since. Patricia’s paintings are almost always of women and girls, or of flowers. Their faces, both intriguing and revealing, tell a great deal about themselves, their time and Patricia herself. She would often paint listening to T.S. Eliot’s Four Quartets, lines from which I have included in this sequence of poems. In my unrhymed sonnets I am trying to make a connection with a fascinating woman and artist of my parents’ generation, who I have come to admire though never met.”
“As an important Otago-based artist, Patricia France has always been of great interest to us, so we are delighted to be able to build on the excellent exhibition package developed by [the Kapiti Coast’s] Toi Mahara Gallery,” arts and heritage curator Jim Geddes said in a statement.
“Additional paintings sourced from southern public and private collections has allowed us greater scope to explore the artist’s distinctive and engaging style.”
The exhibition runs until November 15. Admission is free. — Allied Media