From James Busby on, European settlers made gardens from the moment they set foot on New Zealand soil, and of course Maori had extensive cultivations of kumara around their kainga. Many settler gardens were matters of survival - kitchen gardens on which families were reliant - but as individual circumstances allowed and prosperity spread, many gardens became increasingly ambitious and extensive. It is hardly surprising that artists were drawn to depicting them, as they have from the 1820s right through to the present day. This collection of 100 delightful works, selected by Christopher Johnstone, author of the highly successful LANDSCAPE PAINTINGS OF NEW ZEALAND: A JOURNEY FROM NORTH TO SOUTH, tells the story of our gardening history as it intersected with our cultural and artistic development. Beautifully packaged and carefully researched, it is a treasure trove of magnificent images, many of gardens now lost to the passage of time.

Common Ground: Garden histories of Aotearoa takes a loving look at gardens and garden practices in Aotearoa New Zealand over time. While a lot of gardening books focus on the grand plantings of wealthy citizens, Matt Morris explores the historical processes behind 'humble gardens'--those created and maintained by ordinary people. From the arrival of the earliest Polynesian settlers carrying precious seeds and cuttings through early settler gardens to 'Dig for Victory' efforts, he traces the collapse and renewal of home gardening culture, through the emergence of community initiatives to the recent concept of food sovereignty. Compost, Maori gardens, the suburban vege patch, the rise of soil toxin levels, the role of native plants, and City Beautiful movements...Morris looks at the ways in which cultural meanings have been inscribed in the land through our gardening practices over time. What do our gardens say about us, and where we have been? Matt Morris digs deep in Common Ground.

Presents a range of folk art designs for painting onto objects in and around the garden - ceramic pots, bird feeders, tools and wheelbarrows. Patterns are provided for each design along with photographs and step-by-step instructions.

With 135 paintings from early colonial art to the work of contemporary painters, this book is a must-have for every lover of New Zealand and its art. When Landscape Paintings of New Zealand A Journey from North To South was published in 2006 it was hailed by a reviewer thus: 'This is New Zealand art history made accessible, yet still full of scholarship and insight.' Gallery director Dr Fiona Ciaran wrote that 'the book is a cracker that has something for everyone' -concluding that is was 'simply a magnificent landmark in publishing itself'. And now this acclaimed book is back, with 32 new paintings joining the 103 of the original edition. It is studded with arresting works by well-known artists such as Colin McCahon, Peter Sidddell, Dick Frizzell, Doris Lusk, Rita Angus, John Gully, and many many more famous names from New Zealand art history. In addition, the book offers an opportunity for readers to acquaint themselves with lesser known (these days at least) painters such as Archibald Nicholl, Max Walker, Cedric Savage and Douglas MacDiarmid. With its biographical notes on each artist, extensive bibliography, fascinating insights into social history and art history, and with a beautiful new design and very high production values, this book is a must-have for every book shelf and coffee table. Indeed, in 2013 the Times Literary Supplement included it in its 'books of the year' list.

Completely revised and updated. Chapters have been rewritten. Also added in a substantial new chapter on contemporary Maori and Pacific Island painting, as well as an acknowledgement of the coming wave of Asian artists.

How and why do works make their way into a public art collection? Who decides what will be hung on the walls, placed on plinths, displayed in cases? These important, but seldom discussed, questions lie at the heart of this ‘cultural biography’ of the 70 years during which the Robert McDougall Art Gallery was Christchurch’s civic art gallery. The book explains how the collection came together, how it developed, and how the public, and artists and critics, reacted to it. The book is presented in three parts, each of which has its own introduction. It provides an analytical framework in detail and in context by defining terms and explaining particular, recurrent concepts. These include, and indeed highlight, selection and presentation cultures derived from the core museological functions of collection and display. These, together with the framework’s other concepts, are related to mainstream methodology in the social sciences, particularly political science. The latter is especially relevant to the study of a public art gallery – owned and funded by the public and its elected representatives, and controlled by these representatives and their appointed agents. Furthermore, the framework explores the concept of post-colonial tensions between heritages – specifically indigenous, transplanted and autochthonous ones. The significance of this becomes more apparent when the concepts used in relevant previous studies of specific public art galleries in New Zealand are reviewed. There is also a strong emphasis on the development of a public Maori art collection. It is a story, too, of vivid and influential personalities – the directors and curators who fought for the gallery and the artists represented in it. But the book is more than just the story of a single gallery’s collection: it shines a light on concerns and patterns that will be familiar to galleries everywhere, and provides a unique perspective on New Zealand’s cultural development over much of the twentieth century.