Art By Mother, Daughter

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31514, 31 October 1967, Page 2

Art By Mother, Daughter

Although she would never admit it, Mrs Marie Turnbull is an expert of world class in her specialised field of botanical art.

Her daughter, Elizabeth, has inherited her flair for detail and mother and daughter have combined their artistic output for a “two genera-

'tions” exhibition in the Little Woodware Gallery. Mrs Turnbull, who received a basic art training at school and later trained as an occupational therapist, is a very keen alpine gardener. Her one-acre garden in Hedgehope, near Invercargill, has many rare species from all over the world.

Some plants took years to bloom and her only way of recording the plants for other alpine gardeners was to paint them. She is a lone member of the Alpine Garden Club, of London, which has an artistic section every year for botanical painters. In 1956 she decided to send some samples of her work to the exhibition, as it was impossible for her to send any of her plants. Months later her paintings were returned and she was thrilled when she learned they had been hung in the exhibition and astounded when a firstprize card tumbled out of the wrappings.

She is a member of the New Zealand executive of the Iris Society and her illustrations of species in her garden have been published in the society’s magazine. The Australian Iris Society asked her to be its guestbringing some of her paint-

Ings—at Its conference, and paid her fare In 1963, when an Englishman was appointed director of parks and reseves in Invercargill, he persuaded her to send some of her iris paintings to the Royal Horticultural Society’s show in London. Mrs Turnbull sent some of her paintings, but did so reluctantly, because she knew the paintings there would be of world class. Her’friend assured her that she should have no qualms. Later she learned that her paintings had qualified to bang in the exhibition and that she had been awarded the Grenfell Medal by the Royal Horticultural Society. "I did not even know what the Grenfell Medal was. I had to look it up,” she said in Christchurch yesterday. The medal is awarded periodically by the society to botanical paintings of outstanding merit. Some of her botanical paintings are not for sale because of the sentimental value she attaches to them.

“I grew that from seed sent by the Munich Botanic Gardens,” she said, indicating one such painting. “It took four years to bloom.” Alpine paintings are only part of the exhibithion. There are also collages and screenprinted handcrafts by Elizabeth Turnbull.

Miss Turnbull, who is 20, has directed her talent to commercial channels, and it was mainly through her that Mrs Turnbull decided to exhibit commercially. Miss Turnbull spent 18 months at the School of Fine Arts at Canterbury University. When she was asked to design an educational toy for

children by the Educational Research Institute, “Tiki Taki” was the result. With this toy children make pictures by attaching geometric felt shapes to a sticky felt base. She describes this as her bread-and-butter line; but she sells other handcrafts and screen prints to local stores Mother and daughter combine their talents in the exhibition in their display pf embroidered collages. Mrs Turnbull is a foundation member of the Embroiderers’ Guild in Invercargill and a member of the guild in London. Neither Mrs Turnbull nor her daughter can remember learning to embroider. “We just seem to have been born with needles in our hands,” said Miss Turnbull. When St Clement’s Dane Church in London was refurnished, Mrs Turnbull submitted some samples of her work and she was allowed to embroider a kneeler. Two thousand embroiderers from all over the Commonwealth submitted their work and about 800 were chosen. Mrs Turnbull’s four other children are also artistic. Her daughter Alison, who is in the sixth form at Timaru Girls’ High School, loves designing and cutting her own clothes, and''her third daughter has an exhibit In the collection—an embroidered collage, done when she was 12. Her son, John, has also contributed to the exhibition. At nine, he is already a compulsive rock gatherer and some of his “precious stones” offset some vases of alpine flowers.

The picture shows Mrs Turnbull (left) adjusting the work at the exhibition yesterday.