Hell here Now - the Gallipoli diary of Alfred Cameron

This painting Hell Here Now shows the Turkish landscape at Gallipoli occupied by ANZAC troops in 1915.  The painting includes quotes from the Gallipoli diary of Alfred Cameron, which is held in the Turnbull Library, and a quote from a Turkish solider Ismail Haaki. It is six meters long by 120 cms high on ten panels. It will be exhibited at Pataka Museum of Arts and Cultures in Porirua until the 30th of May.   http://www.pataka.org.nz/

Like many young men of his generation Alfred Cameron could not wait to get away to war. His only worry was that the show would be over before he got there. 
A musical interpretation of the Gallipoli diary of Alfred Cameron by Wellington musicians Catherine Mckay, Slava Fainitiski and Brenton Veitch with readings from the diary by Robin Kerr was performed at Pataka over ANZAC weekend. This performance featured Alfred Hill's recently rediscovered Trio in A Minor to show the imperial optimism of the New Zealand that Alfred Cameron was leaving and the sombre Faure Elegy, representing Cameron's despair at the loss of his friends and what the historian Chris Pugsley has called, 'the stark reality of a group of amateur citizen soldiers facing wars reality for the first time. And there was nothing glorious about it. It was mistake, blunder, muddle, death and disease.' 
Listen to an interview with Bob Kerr and pianist Catherine Mckay about this visual and musical collaboration by Ava Radich of  The concert Programme here.


This show contrasts with an earlier show at Milford galleries in Dunedin.  Number One Field Punishment which looked at the experiences of the conscientious objector Archibald Baxter who, along with thirteen others was kidnapped by the New Zealand Government and taken to France in 1917. Here he was administered number one field punishment. 

Number One Field Punishment

Even though he refused to co-operate with the army Baxter was often treated with kindness by the ordinary soldiers he met. 

“I remember always the gentleness and humanity of the ordinary soldiers who were close to me in those times.” - from We Will Not Cease by Archibald Baxter. 

The Ordinary Soldiers. 2 of five panels each 40 x60

Baxter's fellow objector Mark Briggs refused to walk to the front so he was dragged on his back along the duck walk.

The Duck Walk. 120 x 120 Oil on board

David Grant on the left and Field Punishment No.1

You can read more about the conscientious objectors Archibald Baxter and Mark Briggs in David Grant's excellent book  Field Punishment No.1. It's got some of my paintings in it as well. It's published by Steele Roberts.  http://www.steeleroberts.co.nz/contact.html  

A Man Who Moved New Zealand

Harold Wellman and the Alpine Fault

These paintings about Harold Wellman were exhibited at the Ghuznee Room, Bowen Galleries, 18 August to 6 September 2008

Harold Wellman has been called the most influential New Zealand geologist of the 20th-century. He was the first to recognize one of New Zealand’s most extraordinary features: the Alpine Fault that bisects the South Island. Wellman proposed that the rocks in Nelson and Otago had originally been joined together, and were subsequently dragged apart 480 kilometers by continuing movement of the Alpine Fault. It was regarded as a crackpot idea at the time, but it is now completely accepted.

The paintings in this exhibition look at the time Harold Wellman spent on the West Coast prospecting for gold during the depression and trips he made in the early 1940’s with his fellow government geologist, Dick Willett, following the alpine fault in South Westland.

The exhibition was inspired by the biography of Harold Wellman by Simon Nathan, published by Victoria University Press.

Jock and I divided the labour 

‘Jock and I divided the labour. His was the skilled work of getting the gold into lumps that could be posted to the bank in Hokitika. I was responsible for prospecting the beach.’

Harold Wellman and Dick Willett        

‘Dick had done his masters thesis on glaciation, and I wanted to show him some of the glacial features I had seen while gold mining.’

Up the creek with Harold  

‘I was in Harold’s group. We couldn’t believe that he could get up the creeks so fast, with his socks disappearing into his boots and a cigarette hanging from his lip.’

John Rhodes describing a field trip with Wellman to Onekaka 1963


Listen to Veronika Meduna of Radio New Zealand interview Bob Kerr and documentary maker Simon Lamb about Harold Wellman here.

Here are a couple of new paintings that are currently at the Salamander Gallery in Christchurch.

The River Gorge. 120 high. oil on board

The River Bend, 180 wide, oil on board.You can contact Ann Munroe at the Salamander Gallery here:  salamandergallery@xtra.co.nz