Kā Kaupapa o te Wā
What’s On
Disruptive Landscapes: Contemporary Art from Japan
Quietly powerful and immersive video works revealing the politics behind our view of landscape.
John Vea: Ini Mini Mani Mou
Powerful new work examining the complexities of the immigration process in Aotearoa New Zealand.
Dear Shurrie
The art, influence and friendships of sculptor and teacher Francis Shurrock
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Open 7 days, 10am - 5pm
Late night Wednesday until 9pm
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Free entry, free wifi
Notes
Godley House
The Press announced today that another iconic Banks Peninsula building is to be demolished, Godley House at Diamond Harbour.
Exhibition
Picturing the Peninsula
A selection of works by some of New Zealand’s most significant historical and contemporary artists responding to the unique landscapes of Banks Peninsula Te Pataka o Rakaihautu.
Collection
Margaret Stoddart Anna Ollivier Roses
“I live out my own world & follow in the lives of Frances Hodgkins […] and other women painters,” wrote Rita Angus. One of those painters was fellow Waitaha Canterbury artist Margaret Stoddart. Like Margaret, Rita developed a deep appreciation of botanical subjects in her work. Although both artists are known for their landscapes, their approach to watercolour couldn’t be more different; Margaret’s lively impressionistic approach contrasts with Rita’s work, which is rich with the detail usually reserved for a botanical artist illustrating a scientific journal.
(Perilous: Unheard Stories from the Collection, 6 August 2022- )
Collection
Margaret Stoddart Bush Fire, Paraparaumu
Environmentalists in Aotearoa New Zealand have been fighting to protect our forests from as early as the 1860s. In 1863, the Kīngitanga Te Hokioi newspaper urged readers to: “cease setting fire to the forests lest the trees be consumed; lest there be no more trees for our descendants”. Five years later, Waitaha Canterbury MP and conservationist Thomas Potts gave a speech in parliament asking for assessment, care and protection of the forests. Some forty years later, Margaret Stoddart painted this watercolour in Paraparaumu on the Kāpiti Coast, showing smoke billowing from what remains of dense native bush that appears to be being cleared for agriculture. This was an unusual subject for Stoddart, far removed from the still-life subjects for which she became so highly regarded, and perhaps reveals her anxiety about the continuing deforestation of Aotearoa.
Kīngitanga ~ the King Movement which developed in the 1850s to stop the loss of land to colonists, maintain law and order and promote traditional values and culture
He Kapuka Oneone – A Handful of Soil (from August 2024)
Collection
Margaret Stoddart Godley House, Diamond Harbour
On her return from Europe in 1907, Margaret Stoddart lived in Godley House with her mother and sister and remained there until the family’s Diamond Harbour estate was sold off in 1913. The family were keen gardeners, as can be seen by the charming cottage garden. This is one of a number of paintings Stoddart did in Diamond Harbour and shows the style she had developed during her time in Europe. The expressive opaque watercolour treatment is combined with fine fluid washes applied in a quick and direct manner, out of doors before the subject. Stoddart was born in Diamond Harbour, Christchurch, but in 1876 the family sailed for Britain and she received her early education in Edinburgh. The family returned to New Zealand in 1879 and in 1882 Stoddart enrolled at the Canterbury College School of Art. She was a founding member of the Palette Club whose members were concerned with painting out of doors. She travelled to Europe in 1898.
Collection
Margaret Stoddart Diamond Harbour
Margaret Stoddart was born in Te Waipapa / Diamond Harbour. Her father gave the harbour its English name after its sparkling waters, and commissioned the jetty’s construction in about 1857. Stoddart spent nine years in Europe studying, painting and exhibiting. When she returned home in 1906 she brought with her a skilful impressionist approach to her work. Stoddart was a prolific watercolourist who favoured coastal locations. At her first solo exhibition at the Canterbury Society of Arts in 1911, most of the fifty works shown had been painted near her family’s home at Diamond Harbour. However, as a reviewer for the Lyttelton Times noted, “New Brighton has received a share of attention, and perhaps it is shown at its best during a storm, gusts of wind howling across the Estuary, bending the tussock and grass on the beach.”
(Te Wheke, 2020)
Collection
Margaret Stoddart Wallflowers
Flower painting was a popular subject with Victorian colonial women artists. It was considered more appropriate than painting landscapes, which tended to be dominated by male artists. Early in her career and influenced by her studies at the Canterbury College School of Art, Margaret Stoddart painted Wallflowers in a careful manner. The School placed an emphasis on close observation and truth to nature. The Australian botanical artist Ellis Rowan encouraged Stoddart and wrote in the Australian Town and Country Journal that, ‘Her grouping, colouring, form and harmony were perfect.’ Stoddart was born in Diamond Harbour, on Banks Peninsula, but in 1876 the family sailed for Britain and she received her early education in Edinburgh. The family returned to New Zealand in 1879 and in 1882 Stoddart enrolled at the School of Art. She was a founding member of the Palette Club whose members were concerned with painting out of doors. After living in England for several years, Stoddart returned to New Zealand in 1907 and settled in Diamond Harbour.
Collection
![Storm Clouds, Blythburgh, Suffolk [also known as Suffolk Village]](/media/cache/9a/42/9a4264afac7cbdf432999e96c83df21f.jpg)
Margaret Stoddart Storm Clouds, Blythburgh, Suffolk [also known as Suffolk Village]
‘Storm clouds, Blythburgh, Suffolk’ is typical of Margaret Stoddart’s growing interest in impressionism and painting outdoors while based in England between 1898 and 1906. The atmospheric conditions of the impending storm above Blythburgh have been rendered directly using wet washes of colour. Stoddart travelled widely, taking sketching trips to France, Italy and throughout Britain, often seeking out picturesque villages such as Blythburgh as her subjects. Stoddart enjoyed living at St Ives, Cornwall. The town’s reputation as a plein-air (open air) artists’ colony made it a magnet for New Zealand artists including Frances Hodgkins and Dorothy Richmond, who visited Stoddart there in 1902. (Brought to Light, November 2009)
Collection
Margaret Stoddart Spring Flowers, Cornwall
Margaret Stoddart established a strong reputation for the distinctive, increasingly atmospheric watercolour painting style she developed during her nine years abroad from 1898. Stoddart spent most of her childhood in the rural setting of Te Waipapa Diamond Harbour, followed by three years with her family in Edinburgh from 1876 before they settled in Christchurch in 1880. She and her three sisters enrolled at the Canterbury College School of Art in 1882, its founding year; their father, Mark Stoddart, died in 1885.
After the family’s return to Diamond Harbour in 1897, Margaret left to extend her career in Europe; basing herself in Cornwall at the St Ives artists’ colony. As well as taking further expert tuition, she travelled extensively through England, Norway, France, Switzerland and Italy, where she spent most of her final year away. Stoddart exhibited her flower paintings and landscapes to critical success in Paris and at English commercial and public galleries, including the Royal Academy, before returning home in 1906.
(The Moon and the Manor House, 12 November 2021 – 1 May 2022)