A small exhibition of Wheeler's work is on display at Oamaru's Forrester Gallery to highlight art historian Warren Feeney's recent research into the legacy of Wheeler's street scenes of Oamaru, from 1976 to 1986.
Mrs Wheeler visited the gallery yesterday to see some of her husband's work again, but she ''just about lived'' in Wheeler's home studio upstairs at their former Eden St home.
''We had a nice fire upstairs so when it was cold I often took the dinner up and we had a nice picnic,'' she said.
''And our morning tea always used to go up.''
And as the couple ventured out together ''most days''; she saw his paintings grow from the ballpoint drawings that were done at the site to the oil on canvas paintings now on display.
He would draw a building and then paint a small colour test, while she would carry on and scout out another location ahead.
She was by his side knitting, sewing, or writing letters for much of the time as he used his drawings and colour tests at home in his studio to bring his oil paintings to life.
''He might say, 'Oh, I've done the roof of that building.' And I'd say 'I don't think that's quite the right colour.'
'''Oh, yes it is.'
''And I said, 'All right then.' And I'd go downstairs and I'd come back a bit later. 'You were right, you know, I had to change it.'
''I was sort of getting to be part of it. It kept me out of mischief.
''It was a wonderful life.''
The couple met on October 19, 1940. And while Mrs Wheeler did not have many of his paintings left after moving into central Oamaru recently, she kept his first watercolour.
Wheeler died in 2012 at the age of 93.
Dr Feeney will talk about Wheeler at the gallery at 5.30pm on July 13.
''Colin Wheeler: An Empty Street in Oamaru'' is on display until July 23.
