A AUSTEN DEANS 1915 - 2011

Renowned Canterbury artist Austen Deans has died. Deans, 96, who lived much of his life at Peel Forest in mid Canterbury, died in Princess Margaret Hospital 18 October. He had suffered a stroke 10 days earlier. Deans, a descendant of one of the founding Canterbury families of the same name, was well known for his traditional landscape paintings. In 1939 he volunteered for Army service and set off overseas with the 20th Battalion to Egypt, Greece and then Crete. He was commissioned as War Artist two days before being wounded in the Battle of Crete and taken prisoner by the Germans. Supplies of painting materials through the Red Cross allowed him to continue painting while incarcerated in POW camps for the rest of the war. Austen was twice the first place recipient (and once second) of the Kelleher Art Award and was awarded an OBE for his services to the arts. He was also a keen mountaineer and climbed many of New Zealand's major peaks.