Cover painting: ‘Mes Tantes’, 1989, oil on board, 450 x 550 mm; private collection.
Painting Out The Past; The Life and Art of Patricia France
by Richard Donald; published by Longacre Press, 2008.
Painting Out the Past celebrates the life and work of New Zealand artist, Patricia France (1911–95). Here is an arresting, beautifully illustrated biography that traces the lifetime of this fascinating, remarkable woman.
During the late 1920s Patricia travelled through Europe but upon her return to New Zealand struggled to find a place for herself in Auckland society. After many difficult years she went on to establish herself as a successful painter.
Most at home in the company of artists, poets, sculptors and actors, Patricia regularly corresponded with Colin McCahon and Toss Woollaston, exhibited her work with Anna Caselberg, and acted as patron to the many young artists who visited her gracious Highgate home. In her later years she stoically ignored the onset of blindness, and triumphed over her earlier life by ‘painting out the past’.
Painting Out the Past showcases Patricia’s captivating and impressionistic paintings along with photographs and extracts from her extensive correspondence.
Copies of Painting Out The Past; The Life and Art of Patricia France
are in stock for purchase $20 (NZ) + postage.
Contact Richard Donald <radonald@cyberxpress.co.nz>
“France’s paintings from three Dunedin decades are beautifully presented, along with others from her considerable collection by friends Colin McCahon, Toss Woollaston, Flora Scales, Ralph Hotere and Jeffrey Harris. To photographs of her actual and her artist family, and her villa and garden, are added poignant studies by photographer Gary Blackman of the interior of her house after she died.”