Bill Sutton (1934-37)

Press, 4 June 1982, Page 13

Bill Sutton (1934-37)

Bill Sutton, the doyen of Canterbury painters, says that art school stopped him from being either a roadman or a gardener, “sketching in my spare time.” Instead, he became a painter and also taught at the school between 1947 and 1979. “When I was a student the school was regarded more as a finishing school for young .ladies than a launching pad for professional artists,” he says.

New Zealand had a Victorian hangover: the art school was a gracious appendage to society and art was a dinner-jacketed occasion from which the great unwashed were specifically barred.

“Teaching methods were modelled on those of the Royal College of Art in South Kensington,” Sutton adds. “Most of the teachers were English, and we were trained rigorously in the old disciplines and styles.”

The school was then housed in unsuitable buildings now part of the Arts Centre that Sutton remembers as “old, cold, and full of ancient smells.” He was never led to be-

lieve it was possible to be a full-time artist in New Zealand. One either taught after leaving the school or went overseas.

“Being an artist was not the proper thing for a chap to do. Anyone who managed it did so out of sheer guts in spite of the school and in spite of society.”

The school was realistic. Sutton says it was worth while and acknowledges a debt to its teachers.

“The training was oldfashioned, but sbund. The teachers were dedicated, sincere men who set high professional standards; and that rubbed off on us.”