Evelyn Page
Evelyn Page studied at the Canterbury College of Art from 1915 to 1922 under the tutelage of Cecil Kelly and Archibald Nicoll. In 1926, records show that Page was exhibiting at the Auckland Society of Arts. Page painted a range of subjects over her seven decades of working from nudes to portraits of friends, still life's or landscape, continuously exploring fresh ways to manipulate colour. She had an obvious delight in the rich, sensuousness of organic forms rendered with animated brushwork. Her 'nude' subject matter offended public sensibility as painting of the nude was rare in New Zealand at the time. In 1936 Page travelled to Europe where she was very impressed by the French Post Impressionists and the portraits of the Tate Gallery, and she subsequently painted many portraits of often well-known literary personalities. After her marriage to pianist Freddy Page in 1938, the artist went to live at Governor's Bay in Canterbury, and after a further trip to Europe in 1950, settled in Wellington where she commenced a series of cityscapes; subject matter not often depicted by artists of the era. As her career developed, Page found affinities in the work of Kokoshka and the French Intimists - Bonnard and Vuillard. In the period 1965-67 she joined the Kokoschka Summer School of Salzburg. Page's art career shows an artist committed to a vision of freshness and individufality often depicting the human presence. Her work is included in many New Zealand public gallery collections and she is featured in several major publications on New Zealand art, including a book published in conjunction with an exhibition in 1986 at the Robert McDougall Gallery "Evelyn Page - Seven Decades"
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