Timeless familiar scene from rural New Zealand

In this painting, Margaret Stoddart (1865-1934) has painted three spindly Ngaio trees on a bank above what looks to be a clay road.

There is a striking contrast between the dry earth and vegetation in the foreground and the ominous clouds in the sky above.

Stoddart was born in Diamond Harbour, Banks Peninsula, and one of six children to parents who understood the value of art and an art education.

Enrolling in the Canterbury College School of Art in Christchurch the year that it opened (1882), Stoddart was one of the first generation of artists who were born in New Zealand and went on to become professionals – in fact, she was one of the first professional female artists in Aotearoa.

Stoddart gained fame early on as a flower and landscape painter, and she experienced a high degree of freedom for a woman artist at this time.

In 1898, Stoddart moved to Europe, to live, work and travel as a professional artist. She spent nine years in Europe and was influenced by the paintings of European Impressionists; she met Frances Hodgkins and Dorothy Richmond while she was overseas.

This landscape, Ngaio Trees, was painted after Stoddart returned to New Zealand, when her style had been noted as changing to a more expressive way of handling watercolours.

Even on what looks to be a dreary day in the outdoors in, what was likely, the Canterbury region, Stoddart has captured a certain luminosity.

Looking at Ngaio Trees you are aware that there is a brilliant day just behind the grey clouds that cover the sky; we can almost sense the warmth permeating from the dry vegetation and golden earth.

With a colour pallet reminiscent of rural France, Stoddart has captured a specific and monetary light – and in turn, the mood – of the day. Ngaio Trees is a landscape that is both set in time, and timeless, because the artist has captured a hauntingly familiar scene of Aotearoa.