British Painting & Sculpture Jonathan Grant Galleries 280 Parnell Road Parnell Auckland New Zealand
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British Painting & Sculpture 23 July - 9 August 2020
All works are available for sale upon receipt of this catalogue. The entire exhibition can be viewed at
www.jgg.co.nz
Jonathan Grant Galleries 280 Parnell Rd Parnell Auckland New Zealand Ph: +64 9 308 9125 Email: jg@jgg.co.nz www.jgg.co.nz Catalogue by Grace Alty
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James Edward Buchanan Boswell (1906 - 1971) was born in New Zealand on 9 June 1906, at Westport, South Island, the son of a Scottish born schoolmaster, Edward Blair Buchanan Boswell, and his New Zealand born wife Ida Fair. He was educated at Auckland Grammar School and the Elam School of Art before coming to London in 1925 to continue his training at the Royal College of Art until 1929. Although he was dismissed twice from the RCA painting school over conflicts with its then anti-modern stance, his early works were accepted by the London Group, with whom he exhibited from 1927 to 1932. In 2006 Tate Britain held a centenary exhibition of his paintings, and The British Museum holds a collection of war drawings in their archives. In that year, Muswell Press published his war drawings from London, Scotland and Iraq: ‘James Boswell: Unofficial War Artist’, with text by William Feaver.
James Boswell Going Swimming Oil on board 60 x 75 cm Signed & dated ‘Boswell 56’ Provenance: Whitechapel Gallery London, Pictures for Schools 1958 4
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Anne Redpath OBE, RSA, ARA, LLD, ROI, RBA (1895 - 1965) was a Scottish artist whose vivid domestic still lifes are among her best-known works. Anne Redpath was born in Galashiels and studied at Edinburgh College of Art. In 1920 she married and moved to France, devoting much of the next fourteen years to her family and doing little painting. In the mid-1930s she returned to Scotland, settling in Hawick in the Borders. Redpath admired the French Post-Impressionist artists, such as Van Gogh and Gauguin, and also Matisse. From the 1950s, she became well known in the Scottish art world, specialising in landscapes, church interiors and still lifes painted in rich colours. Her paintings frequently teeter on the brink of abstraction, featuring lively and expansive marks that animate her surfaces. Redpath’s oeuvre includes themes of Catholicism, Impressionism, and personal experience, and her work can be found in institutions such as the National Gallery of Modern Art in Edinburgh and the University of Edinburgh.
Anne Redpath The Chapel of St Jean, TrĂŠboul Watercolour & gouache 24 x 34.5 cm Signed
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Francis McCracken (1879 - 1959) was born in Northern Ireland in 1879. His family emigrated first to Australia, then to New Zealand, where he studied at Elam School of Fine Arts under Charles FristrÜm. In 1914 he left New Zealand with the NZ Expeditionary Force and was severely wounded at Ypres in West Flanders. After the war he renewed his art studies at the Royal Scottish Academy School, Edinburgh. There he established lifelong friendships with Graham Munro (1903 - 1985) and John Weeks (1888 - 1965). McCracken exhibited at the Paris Salon, the Royal Academy, the Glasgow Institute, and the Walker Art Gallery. In 1939 he loaned several works to the Centennial Exhibition of International and New Zealand Art. McCracken’s work shares many features of the Scottish Colourists, such as attention to the painted surface over perspectival arrangement. In particular his work shows an assured use of broad colour for effect. From his time studying in Edinburgh he was influenced by the Scottish colourists, particularly S.J. Peploe (1871 -1935), who worked with a bright colourful palette.
Francis McCracken Twilight, St Ives Oil on canvas 41 x 51 cm Signed lower left Inscribed verso
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Francis McCracken The Dining Table, Forth Street, Edinburgh Oil on canvas 102 x 77 cm Signed
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Christopher Perkins (1891 - 1968) was born in Peterborough, England in 1891. He was a graduate of the Slade School of Fine Art where his contemporaries included Paul Nash, Stanley Spencer, Mark Gertler and Dora Carrington. Perkins was one of a number of artists who came to New Zealand in the 1920s under the La Trobe scheme to teach in the art departments of the technical colleges throughout the country. He arrived in Wellington in 1929 accompanied by his wife and three children. The scheme provided the appointees and their families with a one-way fare, but Perkins only stayed until 1933 before returning to England. Perkins’ art centered around nature, particularly landscape. His compositions reflect the influence of Cézanne. He emphasized rhythms and patterns, simplifying and flattening the formations and using clear, strong lines. In 1966 Hamish Keith and Gordon Brown requested permission from Perkins to include him in the publication An Introduction to New Zealand Painting. He was to feature as one of ten major painters of influence in the development of New Zealand art in the 20th century. Today Perkins’ paintings are held in all major public art galleries in New Zealand.
Christopher Perkins King’s College Gate, Cambridge Oil on board 40 x 50 cm c. 1948
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Margaret Lovell FRBS RWA (b.1939) is an award-winning sculptor and a Fellow of the Royal British Society of Sculptors. She is also a Member of the Royal West of England Academy, and in 2012 was awarded an Honorary Degree of Doctor of Letters by the University of Leicester. Lovell trained at the Slade School of Art in London and the Academy of Fine Art in Florence. Since the late 1950’s Lovell’s sculpture has been exhibited extensively in the UK. She has enjoyed many solo shows, the first being in 1965 at the Marjorie Parr Gallery, London, and more recently at the Royal West of England Academy, Bristol, and a retrospective “50 Years On” at Porthminster Gallery, St Ives. Her work was featured in the national touring exhibition, Unpopular Culture, curated by the artist and ceramicist, Grayson Perry. The works for the show were selected from the Arts Council’s collection and Lovell’s sculpture featured in the exhibition catalogue. Lovell’s works engage powerfully with the space and environment it inhabits. Her frequent use of ‘tall, swaying, wafer-thin surfaces takes the flat plane out of a rigid geometric straightjacket and suggests “organic” links to botanical phenomena’.
Margaret Lovell Soaring Form Bronze on slate 89 x 31 cm Signed Cast 1967 Ed 1/1
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Girolamo Pieri Ballati Nerli (1860 - 1926) known as Girolamo Pieri Nerli or Girolamo Nerli, was born in Siena, Italy, on 21 February 1860. Nerli was trained in the manner of the Macchiaioli, a group of Italian artists who sought a new freedom of execution and realism of subject matter, teaching in both Australia and New Zealand he brought a number of their innovations to Australasia. Nerli was a flamboyant individual as well as an unconventional painter. His three years in Dunedin (1893 - 1896) helped to make the city the art centre of the country. He was elected to the council of the Otago Art Society, and in 1894 was one of a group of three artists who opened the Otago Art Academy. He was a charismatic teacher, and his private classes were so popular that the Dunedin School of Art and Design decided to employ him as a teacher of painting. Among these students was Frances Hodgkins, who later became one of New Zealand’s most famous expatriate artists.
Girolamo Pieri Nerli Hyde Park Promenade Oil on Board 22.5 x 31 cm
Signed with monogram & inscribed Hyde Park
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Girolamo Pieri Nerli The Bull and Bush, Hampstead Oil on Board 22.5 x 31 cm
Signed with monogram
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Sir William Russell Flint RA PRWS (1880 – 1969) was an enigmatic British artist who was lauded as one of the greatest watercolour painters of the twentieth century. From the outset of his career Flint’s work won immediate favour, and exhibiting institutions were quick to give him official recognition. Flint regarded himself ‘first and foremost a landscape painter’ and critics of the time considered him ‘one of the few Academicians who remained faithful to the classical past’. However, it was the artist’s depiction of beautiful young women that garnered him enormous popularity. Flint’s most iconic subject was Cecilia Green, the 22-year-old exotic beauty, who over the course of fifteen years became the artist’s trusted confidant and muse. Flint’s work is found in numerous private and public collections, including the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the Whitworth Art Gallery in Manchester and the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool. Flint died in London on December 30, 1969 at the age of 89, a celebrated and highly successful artist.
Sir William Russell Flint Cecilia Watercolour 26 x 34 cm Signed W. Russell Flint Dated April 1961 verso
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Keith Money (b.1935) was born in New Zealand in 1935, a child of English parents. The major part of his working life has been spent in Britain, although he has travelled extensively in the course of his career, which is that of a tri-part polymath who has had marked success in three totally different disciplines: painting, writing, and photography. In 1977, the prestigious American magazine Thoroughbred Record published a ninepage article on Keith Money and his equestrian paintings, with a picture of Brigadier Gerard reproduced on the cover. Money’s oil paintings of Secretariat, Allez France and Dahlia were amongst those illustrated in the article. Money’s London exhibitions have contained paintings from numerous countries and range through Venice, Corfu, the Algarve and Lake Lucerne, as well as Ontario, Arizona, and both seaboards of America. Throughout his wide-ranging career, Keith Money has painted a diverse range of subjects, and for a decade, his equestrian landscapes are in the collections of stately homes & race horse enthusiasts worldwide.
Keith Money Secretariat Oil on board 76 x 91 cm Signed & dated 1974 Inscribed: Secretariat, American Triple Crown Winner 1973 Illustrated: The Thoroughbred Record January 1977
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Charles Dixon The Tower Bridge Watercolour 28 x 74 cm Signed & inscribed & dated 1911
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Charles Edward Dixon (1872 - 1934) was born in the Thameside village of Streatley, in the Royal County of Berkshire on December 8th, 1872. Thanks to his father, early on Dixon developed a taste for historical subjects, but his were always of maritime interest and usually centered on what was to be a constant source of inspiration throughout his life, the river Thames. The young family moved to London, where the young Dixon made charming and remarkably sophisticated pen drawings of everyday Victorian life. In 1889, at the tender age of 16, Dixon exhibited his first pictures at the Royal Academy. He also exhibited with the New Watercolour Society. In 1900 he was elected a member of the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours. Dixon occasionally worked in oils, though his favoured medium was watercolour. He developed a technique of executing very large pieces quite rapidly. As a young man Dixon worked as an illustrator for the Illustrated London News and Sphere as well as the Graphic. In a book called Britannia’s Bulwarks he provided watercolours for all the colour plates. Dixon had a passion for the London maritime scene, particularly yachting subjects and the river Thames, and admired the aesthetic qualities of water and vessels of steam & sail. His landscapes depicting hay barges, smoking steamers and sailing ships unloading cargo onto steam-driven barges offer nostalgic views of the Thames estuary as it was at the end of an era.
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Dixon was a great friend of Sir Thomas Lipton and sailed on five Shamrock boats that Lipton entered for the America’s Cup races to record scenes off Sandy Hook. Dixon was also successful in the advertising world, producing hundreds of works for posters and postcards. At the turn of the century the passenger steam ship had become a regular form of transport, with more and more shipping companies offering regular services to enable travel all over the world. Further, the increasingly widespread use of colour lithography meant graphic designers explored the use of vibrant images to attract viewers, hopefully those who could afford the expensive opulence of the transatlantic liners. Dixon’s prosperous career coincided with what is today recognised as the glorious period of Britain’s seagoing heritage, the development of British marine art. Working in the notoriously difficult medium of watercolour, Dixon produced an extensive body of quality works, all exhibiting masterly, never laboured, draughtsmanship and artistic flair. Historian Stuart Boyd writes of Dixon’s talent: “Thus his depiction of Thames lightermen standing on the stern of a large, heavily laden barge being guided by a long sweep down the river, are delivered by a few brief strokes, the equivalent of the lightermen’s own seemingly effortless grace.” Today Dixon’s works can be found in numerous maritime and war museums around Britain, including the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, London; the Victoria and Albert Museum, London; and in various maritime museums throughout the world.
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Samuel John Lamorna Birch RWS RA (1869 - 1955) was born in Egremont, Cheshire, the eldest son in a family of ten. Birch left school aged twelve on the death of his father and worked as an office boy in Manchester. However, ill health forced him to leave the city and recuperate for a while at the home of a river bailiff, where he was introduced to fly-fishing. He was torn between his love of art and of fly-fishing for the rest of his life. In 1889 Birch visited Newlyn, attracted by the distinguished group of artists, including Stanhope Forbes and Frank Bramley, who were in residence there. Birch’s work became influenced by the surrounding Newlyn painters resulting in the use of a muted tonal range. In 1902 he moved to Lamorna Cove, the area that provided him with his principal source of inspiration for the rest of his life. From 1906 Birch’s work was exhibited at The Fine Arts Society. By this time his palette had brightened considerably, creating the bold juxtapositions of colours which were a hallmark of his style. He was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy in 1926, and became a full member eight years later. In order to broaden his subject matter, Birch travelled around England, Scotland and the Continent. He visited New Zealand and Australia in 1937 and an exhibition of his Australasian paintings was held at the Greatorex Galleries in London on his return.
Samuel John Lamorna Birch A Cornish Farm Watercolour 25 x 35 cm Signed
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Kathleen (Kitty) Airini Vane (1891 - 1965) is best known for her watercolour and tempera landscape paintings of New Zealand, the Pacific and Europe. Born in Wainuiomata (greater Wellington), Vane was the daughter of Captain Gilbert Mair and Kate Sperry. Educated in Auckland, Kitty studied art under Kennett Watkins (1847 – 1933), and later at the Royal College of Art in London (1912). With the outbreak of the Great War, she travelled to Malta as a nurse. There she met her husband Hon. Ralph Vane. The couple married in London in 1917 and then travelled extensively, seeking out new locations for Kitty to paint. She studied under Samuel Lamorna Birch and her work was exhibited at the Academy in Paris in 1924, the Royal Institute & Royal Academy. After the death of her husband in 1928, Vane travelled to Canada, Africa and America, returning to New Zealand at the start of the Second World War. During the war years she exhibited in New Zealand and Fiji. Vane returned to Europe and North Africa in 1949, where she worked for a further three years. On her return to New Zealand in 1952 she settled at Langs Beach, Northland. She was a regular exhibitor at the New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts and the
Kitty Airini Vane Edinburgh from The Meadows Oil on canvas 28 x 40 cm Signed & dated ‘32
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Edward Noott RBSA (b. 1965) studied at the Cheltenham College of Art, Trent University and State University of New York. Working extensively in oil paints, Noott is able to build up a rich, textured, tactile surface, where sunlight is caught and refracted off the ridges of paint. The brushstrokes of the artist’s brush are clearly visible in all of his works, as the thick trails of paint inscribe his signature over the canvas. Despite the broad sweeping brushwork, an extraordinary degree of detail is harnessed within the painting as Noott expertly records the play of light in both outside settings and interior spaces. The paintings reveal an exquisitely perceptive sense of modelling, leading to a harmonious juxtaposition between the loose, expressive brushwork and the intricate detailing of form. Noott’s paintings are collected on an international scale, comprising significant public collections throughout Europe and America as well as the private collections of Lord Robertson (former chief of NATO) Sir Stanley and Lady Clarke and Lord Birdwood.
Edward Noott Sunday Lunch at Broadway Manor Oil on canvas 91 x 76 cm Signed
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Bruce Yardley (b.1962) completed his first oil paintings whilst still at school some forty years ago, but like so many gifted artists his initial career was not in painting. He trained as an historian at the universities of Bristol and Oxford, gaining his doctorate in the late 1980’s before joining the wine industry, first in retail, then as a freelance wine-writer. Yardley’s developing talent was kept for his leisure time for many years, until more steady requests for his work enabled him to turn professional. He has painted full-time since 1996 and due to natural ability, his work has quickly become noticed by leading art dealers and their customers worldwide. He has recently been elected Associate of the Royal Institute of Oil Painters. The subject matter of Bruce Yardley’s work is usually drawn from near his home in Surrey. It includes his family, flower and garden studies and figurative compositions in sociable settings such as parks, pubs, beaches and cafes.
Bruce Yardley Winter Sun, Buckingham Palace Oil on canvas 51 x 61 cm Signed
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Peter McIntyre OBE (1910 - 1995) is one of New Zealand’s most renowned artists, due to the ever-popular presence of his books in the private libraries of New Zealand families. Born in Dunedin, McIntyre’s father arranged lessons with the artist Alfred O’Keeffe, McIntyre continued his studies at the Slade School of Art, London. Following the completion of his studies, McIntyre worked as a commercial artist in Britain and became heavily influenced by the European avant-garde movements that developed in the 1930s. When war broke out in 1939, McIntyre enlisted as a gunner with the 34th Anti-tank Battery. Sent to Egypt with his platoon, McIntyre was soon contributing illustrations to the British war magazine Parade. In January 1941, General Freyberg appointed McIntyre as New Zealand’s official war artist, chronicling the activities of 2nd NZEF. McIntyre returned to New Zealand in February 1946 as a respected and established artist, setting up a studio in Dunedin to quickly become a renowned portrait and landscape painter.
Peter McIntyre Westminster Abbey Watercolour 51 x 61 cm Signed
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George Haité (1855 - 1924) was an English designer, painter, illustrator and writer. His most famous work is the iconic cover design of the Strand Magazine, launched in 1891. He was born in Bexley, Kent, the son of designer George Haité. Haité was self-taught, beginning to paint at age 16. He painted in both oils and watercolours and designed wallpapers, leaded glass and metal work. In 1873 he settled in London to concentrate on his design work and from 1883 began exhibiting at the Royal Academy. He was also a member of the Royal Institute and the Royal Society of British Artists. Between 1883 and 1887, Haité was the President of the Langham Sketching Club and in 1908 he became the President of the London Sketch Club. Haité also wrote and lectured on art and design and in 1897 was elected president of the Nicolson Institute Art Gallery, Staffordshire. His was also involved in the famous literary club the Ye Sette of Odd Volumes, he was also one of the earliest members of the Japan Society of London and, from 1888, a Fellow of the Linnean Society.
George Haité A Spanish Courtyard Oil on canvas 60 x 38.5 cm Signed
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Rick Lewis MBE ARA was born in County Down, Ireland. A former professional football player, Rick turned to art after an injury side-lined his career, working for Royal Worcester. This career brought another skill to the fore, in that Rick became renowned for his sculpting and design in porcelain and bronze. He later started his own ceramic business, Hereford Bone China, which developed a reputation for producing some of the finest hand-crafted figurines in the world. He moved the company to New Zealand in 1981 and during his years here created a kingfisher which was presented to Prince Charles and Princess Diana on their state visit in 1983. A sculpture known as the ‘Proud Kiwi’ which resides New Zealand’s Parliament building and features on New Zealand gold coins. Rick was created the bronze statues to commemorate Mark Todd’s double Olympic victory and the champion sire Sir Tristram. Lewis was awarded with a MBE and ARA for his contribution to fine art and design in New Zealand.
Rick Lewis The Yearling Bronze 23 x 29 x 7 cm Signed Ed. 32/250
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Sir Terry Frost RA (1915 -2003) was a key figure in the development of British twentieth-century abstract art. Prints were an essential element of Frost’s oeuvre. He believed that painting and printmaking were inseparable and that each medium informed the other. Born in Leamington Spa, England, in 1915, Sir Terry Frost is one of the most important British artists of the 20th century. Using bold colours and simplified, geometric forms, through his prints and paintings, Terry Frost evoked moments and events that had produced profound reactions in him. Frost studied under Victor Pasmore at Camberwell School of Art in London, where he came into contact with the work of the St Ives artists Ben Nicholson, Barbara Hepworth, Peter Lanyon and Roger Hilton, which hugely influenced his abstract style. He experimented with collage and construction, etching, linocut, woodcut, dry point etching and whole heartedly embraced print as a discipline.
Sir Terry Frost Spirals Screenprint & collage on Arches Paper 55 x 68 cm Signed Ed. 52/125 Provenance: The Mall Galleries, London
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Patrick Joseph Caulfield CBE RA (1936 - 2005) was an English painter & printmaker known for his bold canvases, which often incorporated elements of photorealism within a pared-down scene. Caulfield was born on 29 January 1936 in Acton, West London. He studied at Chelsea School of Art from 1956 to 1960. Caulfield continued his studies at the Royal College of Art from 1960 to 1963, his contemporaries included David Hockney and Allen Jones. Upon graduating Caulfield obtained a teaching position at Chelsea School of Art from 1963–71. Caulfield’s paintings are figurative, often portraying a few simple objects in an interior. Typically, he used flat areas of simple colour surrounded by black outlines. From the mid-1970s Caulfield incorporated more detailed, realistic elements into his work. He later introduced elements of trompe l’oeil and photorealism into his paintings. Caulfield also worked in other mediums, including graphic prints, tapestry, theatrical set design and screen-print book illustrations.
Patrick Caulfield Lung Ch’uan Ware and Window Screenprint on wove paper 107.2 x 81.1 cm Signed Ed. 2/45 Published by Waddington Graphics, London 1990
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John Yardley RI (b. 1933) is recognised as one of the most accomplished watercolour painters of his generation. Born in Beverley, Yorkshire, he commenced painting fulltime in 1986. Having had no formal training Yardley maintains that this has given him the freedom to find his own style. Yardley’s increasing prominence in the world of watercolours is the result of his natural ability and flair. He is renowned for his outstanding ability to capture the vitality of a scene with a few well-placed brush strokes and the way he conveys movement with a confident sweep of paint. His characteristic style is to paint what he sees with little embellishment and by drawing his subject and then painting it in one quick and direct application, he retains the sense of movement that is true to the scene and medium. John Yardley is a member of the Royal Institute of Painters (RI) in Watercolour and exhibits at the Royal Watercolour Society where he has won several awards. He enjoys regular painting trips throughout England and Europe, creating beautiful studies of Rome, Venice and the English coast. Special mention must be made of his superb flower studies, many of which are inspired by his own beautiful garden.
John Yardley Glyndebourne Watercolour 36 x 51 cm Signed
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Paul Hanrahan (b. 1936) has a keen observation of everyday life, which allows him to paint his animated subjects with confident impressionistic brushstrokes full of flair. Born in Christchurch, Hanrahan began his career as an advertising art director in Melbourne. Upon returning to Wellington in 1960, a brief but encouraging foray into watercolour painting resulted in three consecutive National Bank Awards. For two decades his demanding career put his painting ambitions on the backburner. His first solo exhibition in 1983 and his invited participation at the International Watercolor Biennale in Mexico in 1996 sparked a keen following, but it was not until 1998 that Hanrahan emerged as a full-time professional artist, cementing his place in the world of watercolour both here and overseas. It is rare to find a work by Hanrahan that does not involve people in some way, whether they are dining in a street cafĂŠ or watching from the side-lines of a sports match. With a quick and skilled brush he executes paintings that are energetic and modern.
Paul Hanrahan Cathedral Gate, Canterbury, Kent Watercolour 30 x 40 cm Signed
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Margaret Lovell Twin Hope Bronze 28 x 10 cm Signed Ed. 4/5
Jonathan Grant Gallery 280 Parnell Rd Parnell Auckland New Zealand 1052 Ph: +64 9 308 9125 | Email: jg@jgg.co.nz