Kakariki II
Maker
Joan Elizabeth Fear
Production date
2008
Description
A clever way to talk about green using a bicultural approach, the name of the bird kaakaariki is the word Maaori use for the colour green and translates to small kaakaa or parakeet. The word is camouflaged in the composition, mimicking the way that the birds blend into the plush greens. Fear's painting could be just about the birds, but it could equally be viewed as an ode to 'Waikato green'. Fear employs the birds as subjects and signifiers of the colour green.
Joan Fear was brought up in Raglan and joined the Waikato Society of Arts and as a young woman had her first solo exhibition in 1965. She was also a member of the studio art group, along with artists like Para Matchitt and Ray Starr, who were pioneering advocates of modern art. Her work ranges across several genres: portraits, landscapes, still life and large scale studies of rural and urban life. An advocate of the regionalist approach, Fear’s paintings demonstrate her love of the local landscape and its communities.
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