40. Peter McIntyre 1910 - 1995
Blue Skin Bay, Otago
Oil on board
53 x 74 cm
Signed
est. $25,000 - 35,000
Fetched $26,000
Relative Size: Blue Skin Bay, Otago
Relative size

Provenance: McGregor Wright Gallery, Wellington, 1976 Private Collection Europe, Private Collection, Canterbury

Blueskin Bay is an estuary just over 25 km north of Peter McIntyre's birthplace, Dunedin. The name Blueskin unofficially describes the rural district which includes the northern slopes of Mount Cargill, the southern slopes of the Kilmog, and the townships of Doctors Point, Waitati, Evansdale, Warrington, and Seacliff. The tidal lagoon of Blueskin, is known in Maori as Waiputai, historically referred to a wider stretch of coast from Heyward Point to Seacliff, including Purakaunui.The name Blueskin is after Kahuti, a resident Maori personality of the area, whom Pakeha settlers nicknamed for the large amount of Ta moko (traditional Maori tattooing) on his body. The name had been used in the past as the nickname of a notorious 18th-century London criminal, Joseph Blueskin Blake. These days the critically endangered, endemic Hector's Dolphins live in and around the bay and it remains a popular site for gathering clams. Along with families collecting the shellfish for personal consumption, Southern Clams Ltd collects clams commercially for export here. Returning from World War II, where he served as both a Captain and New Zealand's official war artist McIntyre began a long and i llustrious post war career. He lived and exhibited in Wellington, frequently undertaking painting trips abroad. In 1962 A H & A W Reed published The Painted Years, the first of eight books he would illustrate and write between then and 1981. Travels to Antarctica, Hong Kong, the Pacific Islands and the American West provided material for these popular publications. Blue Skin Bay, Otago is a fine example and on the market for the first time

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