‘Early Queenstown’ by Douglas Badcock, New Zealand Plein Air, Queen Elizabeth II Collection

Signed lower left, ‘D. Badcock’ for Douglas Badcock (New Zealander, 1922-2009) and painted circa 1948.

Preferring to paint en plein-air, Douglas earned a reputation as one of New Zealand’s leading landscape painters. Douglas was a two-time Kelliher Art Award winner and several books have been published on his work. His paintings are included in numerous private and public collections including in the collections of the Queen of England’s collection and the King of Thailand.

Douglas Badcock held his first exhibition in Wellington in 1960, selling out the show in two days. A review at the time described him as “a realistic painter and absolutely sincere with a natural talent and a high technical standard. A master of the New Zealand landscape, he paints New Zealand as he sees it…” Badcock was the author of My Kind Of Country, My Kind of Painting and A Painter in Fiji.

In a Listener article in 2004, Mr Badcock said: “I paint seas, skies, mountains. I paint the world I know, as it appears to me. I have an image that is there and I have to record it. When I’m painting I let the subject reveal itself. Picasso said I don’t seek, I find. And finding is a revelation – intellectually, emotionally, spiritually. The primary motivation is self-expression, but if there’s no vision, if we don’t see beauty in nature any more, then we’re nowhere.”