B.
Happy Birthday Olivia
Behind the scenes
April seems to be the month for birthdays and today we salute Olivia Spencer Bower (1905-1982)
She was born this day in St Neots in England and moved to New Zealand at the age of 14. Her legacy is the Olivia Spencer Bower Foundation which awards an annual scholarship to artists of promise.
We are delighted to be the guardian of Olivia Spencer Bower's archive which comprises letters, diaries, photograph albums and other material. You may recall some of these documents were on display as part of Brought to Light back in 2009.
Here is her exquisite impression of Capri with its distinctive mauve blush.
Olivia Spencer Bower La Piccola Marina, Capri 1931. Collection of Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū, presented by the Canterbury Society of Arts, 1932. Reproduced courtesy of the trustees of the Olivia Spencer Bower Foundation
Computer screens can do funny things - and they are obviously no substitute for the real thing - but that distinctive purple haze is even more striking when you view thumbnails of all her works at once.
Related
Exhibition
Olivia Spencer Bower: Views from the Mainland
4 November 2016 – 2 April 2017
A selection of watercolours by one of Canterbury’s most treasured artists.
Collection
Olivia Spencer Bower La Piccola Marina, Capri
Brought to light, November 2009- 22 February 2011
Olivia Spencer Bower spent 1929 to 1931 based in England, where she studied at the Slade School of Fine Art under the formidable Henry Tonks, whose pupils included Spencer Gore, Augustus John, Wyndham Lewis and Stanley Spencer. She travelled extensively throughout Britain as well as France and Italy, sketching and visiting art museums. Spencer Bower was based at Capri during February, 1931 where she sketched every day. Her return to New Zealand later that year was a disappointment: ‘Here I was, back from England with my pretty clothes and self confidence I hadn’t had before, and I was incarcerated in the Slump.’