A Painting Safari

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 31984, 10 May 1969, Page 4

A Painting Safari

Historic Sheep Station* of the South Island. By Colin Wheeler. A. H. and A. W. Reed. 71 pp. An artist is always on the look-out for fresh subject

' matter. In 1967 Colin ' Wheeler's search took him On , a sustained painting safari to ; 26 remote high-country sheep stations lying in the folds of ' the Southern Alps; self-con-tained homesteads in rugged ' and beautiful country, but ' where living and the gaining 1 of a livelihood is a never- ' ending struggle. GaunL rambling Molesworth Station, pop--1 lar-rittged Glynn Wye, Meso- ; potamia in Samuel Butler- ' country, the isolated Mount ' Cook Station, and lakeside ' Glendhu—for. eight months 1 Colin Wheeler drove with his ; wife through the South' • Island, travelling from the ' southerly Nokpmai Station on 1 the Otago-Southland border, 1 to the 123-year old Leefleld ’ run in the sunny Walhopai ’ Valley near Blenheim. ' This admirable book contains the fruits of that trip i and is dedicated to, “All the : people of the high country; 1 and to a patient and helpful ' wife, who has such a splendid ' eye for subject matter." Mr ' Wheeler pays tribute too to the station hands for their willing help and the- station : owners and their wives, who. ' “were generous, often to the point of embarrassment, with their time and hospitality.” He also has special thanks 1 > for Mr David McLeod of; Grasmere and Mr Allan Dick, M.P., late of Lilybank, for “their help in the selection of the stations illustrated.” The book has been printed by the Kyodo Printing Company, Tokyo, on thick cream paper of a roughish texture. Layout and typography are excellent with

> the faithfully reproduced i paintings—seventeen oils and . three water-colours—resplen-dent on separate glossy , sheets. One expects pictorial ; work of a high standard from an artist of Mr Wheeler’s eminence, and one is not. disappointed, but the lively text is an unexpected bonus. Talk- , ing of what he looked for when visiting a station* he [ says, "The point is we never knew in advance jhst what would attract us. I always 1 tried to keep an open mind. ' That was the fascinating part; you never knew. Look- ’ ing back; I can see that every ’ station had its very own peri sonal qualities, hard to , define or explain.” s Mr Wheeler’s large colour s prints go a long way towards i capturing the elusive indivi- > dual aura of each station. He i shows us the orange-roofed , Lake Coleridge homestead I through bare winter trees I with sun bursting in a dazzle of cold white light . through the top, branches. In his picture of Mount Nicholas , on Lake Wakatipu it is the ' snow-streaked hills that hold I our eye. with the clustered i buildings at their feet . dwarfed to insignificance. One ,of the loveliest homestead . studies is of the soft brick and gables of Mount Peel, , built in 1860 with local timber, and'' bricks made and fired on the property. With Colin Wheeler's ■ marginal pen-sketches we get the ; homelier details; woolsheds, bridges, a blacksmith's shop, ■ crumbling ruins of an earlier ' homestead, mailboxes, pin-up girls on a bunkhouse wall, and a group of aristocratic Cheviots. Mr wheeler was born in : Dunedin, has won many i national awards in competitions, and has studied in London.