Provenance: Private Collection, Auckland Purchased by current owner, International Art Centre, 1988

Illustrated p. 151 'The Art of Peter Siddell' Peter Siddell, Random House Publishing, 2011

'In Mount Eden we had a lilypond which I could see from my studio, and the play of light on the water and leaves was a delight. However, when Emily announced that she was expecting our first grandchild my reaction was that we would have to cover the pond. Instead, we replaced it with a small fountain in which the water was well out of an infant's reach.' Peter Siddell

Sir Peter Siddell paintings breathe the suburbs of Auckland. Siddell was born in Auckland in 1935 and attended Mount Albert Grammar. He initially worked as an electrician and then a teacher but after his 1972 sellout solo exhibition at Moller's Gallery in Auckland he took up painting full time. He has gone on to become one of New Zealand's most admired painters with works in most public and corporate collections.

In 1978 he won the Air New Zealand Travel Award and the Benson & Hedges Supplementary Art Award.

In 1991 Siddell received a Queens Service Order (QSO). He was made a Distinguished Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to art in 2008, an honour that was redesignated as Knight Companion of the Oder in 2009.

Sir Peter lives with his wife Lady Sylvia Siddell, also a painter, in Auckland.

A 290 page book 'The Art of Peter Siddell' by Peter Siddell has just been published.