Art-lover alert

Artist John Holmwood created the striking untitled mural featuring New Zealand birds and trees in 1968. It was commissioned by Dominion Breweries for a hotel in Auckland and 29 years later, donated to the Kauri Museum where it is now on display.

Eye-catching gold paint covers the background of the two metre high and four metre wide mural. A combination of graphite pencil, with visible line work, and earthy paint colours have been applied to create the scene. A distant bush-clad mountain range, with a stream curving into the foreground, meets a mature kauri tree. Birds feature throughout the mural, notably kererū, kōtare, pūkeko and pīwakawaka and stylised flora, including ponga and tī kōuka. This iconic artwork doesn’t ignore early deforestation, neither is it a morbid representation – it celebrates the resilience of nature and renewal to come.

The commission was site specific for the Royal International Hotel’s refurbishment, at the corner of Victoria and Elliot Streets, in Auckland. It was removed in 1987 due to building demolition and subsequently, donated to the museum.

Edward John Evelyn Holmwood lived a very art-focused life. Born in Wellington in 1910, he took a keen interest in art from an early age. At 14, he began an apprenticeship with the New Zealand Railways Advertising Studios, Wellington. Over the next decade, Holmwood became familiar with the materiality of paint, mixing colours and assembling palettes for the senior artists. Keen to further his artistic skills, he attended evening classes at Wellington Technical School. It was here that he progressed from student to teacher, instructing drawing classes part-time.

During the Depression, he was tasked with reporting on the condition of South Island Railways’ billboards. Holmwood greatly enjoyed meeting people and being immersed in the landscape. He went on to design numerous advertising posters and billboards for the Railways. Ready for change, he took a position with a Wellington advertising agency in 1938, before enlisting in the army and being deployed to a Camouflage Unit in the Pacific during World War II. While on leave he married designer Nola Findlay, who established a design studio in Auckland. They worked together in the business until 1969 when they sold up and went travelling for two years.

During the Auckland years, and with Nola’s encouragement, Holmwood’s art practice flourished. He was active in the art scene, a regular on discussion panels at the City Art Gallery and taught art appreciation classes. Holmwood publicly exhibited his work for the first time in 1944, participating in the exhibition Artists in Uniform, which travelled Aotearoa. Auckland City Art Gallery regularly exhibited his work during the 1960s. He became President of the Auckland Society of the Arts in 1969. When Nola died in 1972, Holmwood moved to England, briefly returning to Aotearoa for his retrospective exhibition held by the Auckland Society of Arts,1976. He died in Bristol, England, 1987. Holmwood remains an important artist in the New Zealand art canon.