B.

Louise Henderson’s January expresses a sense of ready pleasure in the shimmering colour and light of midsummer, as seen through the ready-framed views of the Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland bush from her studio at the edge of Mount Eden. Painted when she was in her mid-eighties, this is one of twelve large canvases representing the months, and reflects the indomitable attitude Louise developed over many decades. As she revealed to an interviewer, “That’s the good thing about becoming a painter – you never retire. It’s not like an office job where at sixty you stop and then wonder what you want to do with life. Painters never stop painting.”

(Perilous: Unheard Stories from the Collection, 6 August 2022- )