HEREDITY IN ART

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 970, 13 May 1930, Page 9

HEREDITY IN ART

Eric Gully Follows Distinguished Forbear PROMISING PAINTER Those who believe in heredity have proof of their argument in Eric Gully, a young artist now in Auckland. He is a great-grandson of John Gully, who was considered the greatest of the early New Zealand water colourists, and w-hose work now hangs in all the principal art galleries of New Zealand and Australia. Eric Gully hopes to exhibit at tho forthcoming exhibition of the Auckland Society of Arts. Like his famous great-grandfather, he paints in water colours. His work is charming in its simplicity of colour and design. This promising young artist was born at Nelson on December 28. 1906. At an early age he moved to Masterton. where he studied painting under E. P. Fenton at the Masterton Technical School, and later under Constance Beard, A.R.C.A. For 10 years arter leaving school Gully was engaged with a Masterton firm of surveyors, alw’ays painting in his spare time. During the past year he has devoted all his time to painting, and hopes to leave for England shortly to continue his studies in one of the colleges there.

This week Gully will leave for Spirits Bay on a sketching tour. John Gully, who was 70 years of age when he died, was known as the father of art in New’ Zealand. lie came from Bath, England, to New Zealand, and settled in New Plymouth at the time of the Maori wars. He was not successful as a farmer, and moved to Nelson, where he was attached to the Crown Survey Department. Paining was an instinct with John Gully. He never received any tuition, but from boyhood he spent his days sketching and painting. In later years he was able to devote the wrhole of his time to art, and became famous as a water colourist. His work was exhibited in Australia, and at exhibitions cf the Society of British Water Colour Artists. Much of his best work is in Australia. John Gully was related to Sir William Court Gully, at one time Speaker of the House of Commons, and was a descendant of John Gully, the celebrated gentleman boxer and sportsman mentioned in “Rodney Stone,** one of Conan Doyle's early novels.