Helen Stewart

If painters like Colin McCahon and M. T. Woollaston painted the New Zealand landscape as a tough, existential arena in which issues of individual and national identity were confronted, for Helen Stewart the landscape was a more lyrical and therapeutic setting. Her landscapes are personable and full of light, colour and gently undulating forms. As in the paintings of Frances Hodgkins, buildings and fences merge into the landscape, adding to the harmonious feeling.