Mona Vale lies just to the north of Sydney. Its area of bush, close proximity to a beach and easy accessibility from the city made it an ideal retreat for artists who, like Cedric Savage, were interested in painting rural scenes outdoors. As a plein air painter, Savage felt unappreciated in New Zealand. “I am completely alone, a suspect in the art world. For I openly will not accept the oblivion into which the controlling abstract crowd try to put me...” Born in Christchurch, Savage studied at the Canterbury College School of Fine Art and later with Sydney Lough Thompson (1877-1973) and Archibald Nicoll (1886 -1953). He then travelled but settled in Christchurch in 1933 and became vice-president of the New Zealand Society of Artists. Savage’s eyes were injured during World War II and for the rest of his life he could only paint outdoors. Savage spent many years living away from New Zealand and finally settled in Greece.