Artist preserving past in drawings

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33904, 25 July 1975, Page 5

Artist preserving past in drawings

(By

LEONE STEWART)

An Australian whoj came here just to see New Zealand has developed a passion for preserving its past. Gwenda Turner is producing a permanent record homes and buildings in and around i Christchurch. Her pen and wash drawings are lovingly and expertly I executed. Those who go to her exhibition at Several Arts Gallery will no doubt see some old “friends” and half-remembered "faces.” Picking the address is half the fun. It is a bit like knowing the face but not being; able to put a name to it. Sadly, it will soon be a case of “not known here” for many of the wooden, colonial: buildings that are mute testimony to our past. Gwenda Turner is acutely; conscious of the passing of time, and the vulnerability of I her subjects. One of the little cottages she has rendered so affectionately— at 49 Cale-1 donian Road—has since been bulldozed to make way for a block of flats. “1 feel as though I need; half a dozen pairs of hands,”; she said yesterday. “People: keep coming to me and say-j ing I must draw this house; or another because it’s going soon.” She would like to see many) more houses on the Christchurch City Council’s pro-; tected list. And there are many places she is discover-! ing outside the council’s area,! and surrounding townships. Demolition of many old

homes in Akaroa worries her especially. “But, of course, it all comes down to money. Where is it going to come from if we are to preserve our past?” Gwenda Turner sees her drawings, done in sepia brown ink and black drawing ink, with a mixed wash, as a record for future generations. A book, complete with detailed historical records, is a five-year project. Although her work is indeed a very precise record, it has none of the coldness of some photographic work. She has both an architectural and an artistic eye. Much of her success can, no doubt, be attributed to her training in graphic design. She is high in her praise of her tutors at the Wellington Polytechnic’s School of Design. In 1967 Gwenda Turner came to New Zealand “to see the country.” But her natural leaning toward art—especially drawing and design —led her to apply for the School of Design. She was one of the 49 accepted from more than 100 applicants for the course. In her second year she won 1 the Alfred George East Scholarship for further study, and graduated in graphic design in 1969. For a year she worked in the Industrial Design Office in Wellington, doing the design and layout of the magazine Export News. Then friends persuaded her to join them on Norfolk Island. There she set up as a graphic designer, and opened a craft shop. Her love of old houses and buildings developed then. During her three years on ■HEaMBMHOsaasn

the island she lived in a house more than a hundred years old. She had to draw her water from a well, stoke up a cold range, chop the wood. Few artists, she maintains, could have got a better insight into their subject. Missing the stimulation of a cultural life, she returned to New Zealand. Eventually the production manager of an advertising agency in Christchurch offered her freelance (vork for the agency. They have now been married a year, and he is her keenest critic. Looking back, it all seems like fate. “Living on Norfolk developed my interest in these old buildings. And having 'my husband ni the same sort of work makes a big difference—he encourages and helps me a lot.” she said. Although she still has her Aussie twang, Gwenda Turner would not return to Australia “for quids.” She likes the smaller, more intimate scale of life here, and especially the amenities Christchurch provides. “In Australia there are so many people doing their own thing, or whatever they call it, it’s very hard to make contact.” Now she is drawing and painting full-time. Much time is taken up searching out the old homes and buildings. Once she has a good picture in her mind, and a brief outline. she works un the detail for each drawing from photographs. Often she projects herself into the drawing, leaving out modern additions or details that seem out of harmony with the original setting. She has found subjects in Kaiapoi, Cust, Rangiora, Akaroa, as well as Christchurch. But for a while she intends to concentrate on the more central area. “I just love my work,” she said. “These davs I never get the dishes done.” Her exhibition, combined with collections of some fine vases by Christchurch potters, runs from July 27 to August 15.