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Another nor’wester descends on Canterbury

Behind the scenes

26 January 2012. Posted by Peter Vangioni

Some people fear them, others revel in the unforgiving dry heat – love them or hate them the legendary Canterbury nor'wester is one of the defining features of this region in the summer months and there is a real doozy blowing outside at the moment.

As one of my colleagues described them, it's like entering a small room, closing the door and windows and switching on 20 fan heaters – hot and dry as hell.

Bill Sutton loved Canterbury's nor'westers. He found them energising and, as long as it's not a headwind biking home, I'd have to agree with him. These two works by Juliet Peter and Bill Sutton both have the distinctive cloud formations that go hand in hand with the nor'west winds.

Juliet Peter Nor'west 1939. Linocut. Collection of Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū, gift of William Sutton 1983

Willaim Sutton Hills and Plains, Waikari 1956. Oil on canvas board. Collection of Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū, purchased 1989

Related reading: In the Vast Emptiness

Exhibition

Beneath the Ranges

18 February – 23 October 2017

Mid twentieth-century artists focus on people working the land

Exhibition

Pressed Letters: Fine Printing in New Zealand Since 1975

30 August – 11 October 2012

An exhibition presenting some of the finest examples of letterpress printing produced in New Zealand from 1975 to the present.

Collection

Juliet Peter Nor’west

According to Kāi Tahu, within the story of the creation of Te Waipounamu (the South Island), Aoraki was an atua, or demi-god, who left the home of his father, Raki, in the heavens and voyaged with his brothers to visit Raki’s first wife Poharora o Te Po. They set out to return to his father, but there was a fault in the karakia (prayer) for their return. Aoraki’s canoe – Te Waka o Aoraki – was stranded, and Aoraki and his brothers turned to stone, becoming the mountains of Kā Tiritiri o Te Moana, the Southern Alps.

'This work is interesting because it offers an unusual perspective on Aoraki [Mount Cook] – but Aoraki is full of different perspectives in Kāi Tahu culture. The mountain is, above all, a symbol of our tribal and regional identity. That’s got nothing much to do with its location – although that obviously commands cultural attention – but mainly because of its centrality in the Te Waipounamu creation story. And it is a distinctive creation story, part of a creation myth which has survived here in the remote outskirts of Polynesia while it has been lost at the centre where it came from. Aoraki made us distinctive, and it makes all people distinctive that live under its span. Juliet Peter’s depiction of it is unusual, but every way you look at Aoraki you’ve got a different perspective.' —Sir Tipene O’Regan

(He Rau Maharataka Whenua: A Memory of Land, 17 September 2016 – 18 February 2017)

Collection

Bill Sutton Hills and Plains, Waikari

Living in Ōtautahi Christchurch for most of his life, Bill Sutton was an artist who identified deeply with the surrounding Waitaha Canterbury landscape. He would often escape the city for sketching trips to Horomaka Banks Peninsula or inland towards the High Country. Works such as this highlight his interest in regionalism and the distinctive features of this land. Here, he focuses on the abstract patterns of paddocks and shelter belts with the dramatic backdrop of the foothills and Kā Tiritiri-o-te-moana Southern Alps in the distance. The sky is painted to show the unique cloud formations resulting from the celebrated nor’west winds of Waitaha.

He Kapuka Oneone – A Handful of Soil (from August 2024)