Bill Sutton’s precariously balanced postgraduate life of painting, teaching and exhibiting came to an end when he was called up for military training in 1941. Deemed medically unfit for overseas service, he was directed briefly into roadmaking before being put to work painting army murals and designing for the army Camouflage Unit, and worked throughout Te Waipounamu / the South Island at concealing gun emplacements, bomb stores and even small airfields. It is tempting to see something of the camouflage impulse lingering in Glenmore Brickyard, painted while on home leave in Ōtautahi Christchurch in 1942. Sutton’s interpretation of a brickworks on Port Hills Road is a sound investigation in formal composition, and at the same time both semi-abstract and realistically observed.

(From Here on the Ground, 18 May – 17 November 2024)

The history of the Glenmore Brick and Tile Manufacturing Company is described in detail in 'The Port Hills of Canterbury' by Gordon Ogilvie (Philips and King, 2009).