As we move through October, many of us will start to see bright seasonal flowers pop up in gardens around the Wairarapa.
As a lovely connection to Spring, our Pop-Up Museum display in Carterton Library is currently showing a botanical sketchbook by Masterton artist Alice Hosking.
“Pop-Up Museum is now into its second year, with objects from Aratoi’s collection on loan to libraries across Carterton and South Wairarapa,” says Aratoi Director Sarah McClintock.
“We chose the sketchbook from Alice Hosking as our Carterton Pop-Up as it has a lovely connection to the Daffodil Festival and the local landscape of the scenic Tararua ranges, where many of her sketches of plants came from.”
Many of the best botanical drawings in Aotearoa were made by women. Artists like Hosking, and her predecessors Martha King, Emily Harris, Georgina Hetley, and Sarah Featon were instrumental in making the study of New Zealand flora the focus of their artistic practice. These sketches were crucial to the scientific study of plants and showcases the ways in which art and science can work together.
Hosking, born in 1859, was a prolific carver and painter. Aratoi has a significant assortment of her works in the collection store, with her Grandfather clock, bench and a sketch book currently on display in the Tranzit Group Social History gallery exhibition Let’s Have a Tea Party! Hosking’s carvings epitomised the idea of the Arts and Crafts Movement which was taking hold across Britain and the colonies in mid-19 th century. It was a reaction against a perceived decline in standards that the reformers associated with machinery and factory production. The Movement was notable for its celebration of organic materials, simple forms, attention to patterns which were all inspired by nature.
Let’s Have a Tea Party! closes on Sunday 2 November.
