Ashburton Art Gallery was recently generously gifted eight artworks by the Braided Rivers Community Trust from the former art collection of the Ashburton Licensing Trust. Three of these – by Michael Eaton, Henry Lowen-Smith, and Margaret Rhodes – feature in this exhibition of Waitaha Canterbury landscape paintings from the Ashburton Art Gallery’s collection.

The books A First Year in Canterbury Settlement, and Erewhon: or, Over the Range by Samuel Butler (1835-1902) describe landscapes that were either inspired, or directly experienced by Butler during his years sheep farming at the high country station Mesopotamia. Quotes from these two books accompany the paintings to provide an early settler’s impression of the often imposing landscape of the region.