B.
The Moon by Robert Louis Stevenson
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Visitor Host Deborah Hyde reads The Moon by Robert Louis Stevenson. The painting by Sir Alfred East was, Deborah reports, the first painting she saw when she began working at the Gallery back in 2003. Stevenson is of course not a New Zealand poet but he did come here briefly in 1890. The exertions of a morning's shopping in Auckland apparently rendered him prostrate for the rest of his stay here.
We heard yesterday that isolation requirements will be very slightly eased next week. But for now and, in the future, scrupulous hand-washing remains important. Think of the moon while washing yours.
Sir Alfred East The Moon and the Manor House Collection of Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū; bequeathed by Hayden R I Fraser, January, 1975
Related reading: Covid-19
Collection
Sir Alfred East The Moon and the Manor House
London-based artist Alfred East painted The Moon and the Manor House at Upper Swell village in the Cotswolds, where he kept a small studio from the 1890s. This evocative composition is one of ninety-five paintings he showed in 1895 in English Landscapes: illustrating the Effects from Dawn to Moonrise, his third exhibition with the Fine Arts Society in London. While studying at the Académie Julian in Paris from 1881, he was influenced by the work of Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, among others. East was born into a shoemaking family in Kettering, Northamptonshire. He spent two decades in this industry before dedicating himself fully to painting, after taking night classes at the Glasgow School of Art while managing his brother’s boot factory there in the 1870s. East settled with his family in London in 1884, held his first exhibition at the Fine Arts Society in 1888 and then was sponsored to spend six months in Japan in 1889 – the first English artist to work extensively in that country. He became one of Britain’s best- known painters and remained an inveterate traveller, working also in France, Spain, Italy and North Africa.
(The Moon and the Manor House, 12 November 2021 – 1 May 2022)
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Director’s Update
With a welcome shift back to Level 2 in our collective fight against COVID-19, we are delighted to reopen our doors to visitors.
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Bringing up the rear
We finish our handwashing poems with R A K Mason's Song of Allegiance, read, as was the Keats sonnet that started this series, by me.
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House Rules by Joanna Margaret Paul
We are delighted to present Joanna Margaret Paul's House Rules, read by its creator's daughter Magdalena Harris. Dishwasher tension will, we are sure, be familiar to all.
The poet also created the painting you see, which is called Barrys Bay: Interior with Bed and Doll.
And although it's a day after Mother's Day, let's today salute all mothers and their efforts, especially over the last few weeks.
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Running Water by Robyn Hyde
We don't want the poems to stop but dare we hope we are inching closer to re-opening? In the interests of playing it safe, let's keep washing our hands though, today with Visitor Host Dora Mullins and some exquisitely sad lines from Robin Hyde.
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Cat in the Dark by Margaret Mahy
A beautiful poem today by Margaret Mahy, beautifully read by 10 year old Elsie Billington.
A minute of pure handwashing pleasure.
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A Calm Day by Basil Dowling
Today our Graphic Designer Peter Bray reads about the sound of the ocean when the wind dies down. Only Basil Dowling puts it lot better than that in A Calm Day.
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I saw her face by Robin Judkins
We've had lots of poetry responding to nature but poetry's other great theme has been absent. We put that right today with a love poem by Robin Judkins. A simple expression of love you might say, but listen right to the end and then say with confidence what happens next.
That will take a minute so your hands will be sparkling. Today's reader is Visitor Host Tim Hobbs.
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And the animals shall inherit the earth
It’s been interesting observing how nature has quietly but very quickly reclaimed the earth since we have all gone into Covid-19 lockdown. My social media timelines have been peppered with images of animals wandering where humans can’t, boars roaming in Barcelona, peacocks in Dubai, deer in Japan and schools of tiny fish in the now clear waters of Venice to name a few. Related of course are the clearing skies around the world.
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To a child dancing in the wind by W B Yeats
Today our Business Administrator Jackie Heavey reads a poem by a compatriot of hers, William Butler Yeats, in which the innocence of childhood is envied.
Yes you can now go to the beach, but keep your distance and, of course, keep washing those hands.
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Spheres: An Online Video Project
Over the past few weeks, I have been working with fellow curator Nathan Pohio on an online video project that we’ve called Spheres. I’ve only recently joined the Gallery, so it’s been helpful to have something to focus on from home as well as a reason to be in touch with some interesting artists.