Val Evon Raymond, artist, educationalist, “quiet activist” 19/11/1931 - 19/2/2021

Taupō painter and artist Val Raymond – synonymous with landscape and portrait painting in the town and wider central North Island has been remembered for her “quiet activism” for the area’s environment and heritage and her bridging of the gap between a European aesthetic and Te Ao Māori.

Among a series of glowing tributes at her funeral, one of the most poignant was by artist and curator Eleazar Bramley​ (Ngāti Tūwharetoa, Ngāti Rauhoto).

“My first connection with Val Raymond was as a child, spinning on my great-grandmother's chair, running my hands through a beaded curtain, staring at a portrait of my great, great-grandmother Kui Arihia Rameka wrapped in a feather cloak.

“My eyes would trace the lines of her face around the curves of her moko kauae, and through her wavy white hair. Magically her piercing eyes would follow me around the room. The little artist in me was unfurling – this painting engaged me unlike any photo I’d seen.

“Almost a mythological character that featured in many of our family stories, I had never met this kuia but I knew her. I knew her in part through Val’s work. Val had sat in the physical realm with my kuia and Val was able to capture a part of her essence. I could inherently understand and see my kuia’s significance, her strength, her temperament, her experience, her softness, her wisdom and her mana…

Bramley would later accompany Raymond on one of her heritage projects in 2010 – 10 water colours of whare karakia, churches, around Lake Taupō and 10 oil paintings of the land they inhabit.

“Val saw many of these places as portals into a time gone by; imbued within their walls histories, births, deaths, marriages, battles, grievances, scandals, colonialism, celebrations and community.”

The originals from this project, along with the earlier 43 original sketches of 23 marae around the lake published as ‘Ngā Marae o Ngāti Tūwharetoa’, would become part of a body of work, including about 50 other paintings from her 2000 collection, Raymond donated to Ngāti Tūwharetoa.

She also gifted a collection to the Tongariro National Trout Centre and a number of portraits from her early days in Taupō were returned free to families.

But the works were not flipped out quickly – speakers testified to Raymond, a full time professional artist from 1983, when she left a 13-year position as specialist art teacher at Taupō Intermediate School, spending up to eight hours a day at the easel.

Bramley said Raymond would roll her eyes when anyone asked her how long a painting took.

“She would just turn around and say ‘irrelevant’. It was because it was a lifetime at that point to create that work. Whether you like her work or not, this woman spent 30 years, tricking out a glaze that would reflect the colour of our skies...

“It’s very easy to take for granted when you do something so well, but she was very skilled, and she was absolutely enamoured by the Central Plateau and the people. And so generous.”

Former Taupō Member of Parliament Mark Burton characterised her generosity and valuing of the natural world as activism.

She had made an “enormous creative contribution” to the area, he said, and strongly believed in the contribution arts could make to a nation’s identity.

“She has, through her art, been a quiet activist for the environmental, historical and cultural heritage of Taupō-nui-a-Tia,” Burton said.

Longtime friend and exhibition assistant Christine McElwee, said the 89-year-old artist laughed wickedly recently when telling her she was thinking of a future project.

She planned, researched, sketched, drew, painted and sold art for seven decades, said McElewee, from when she graduated in 1953 with a Diploma in Fine Arts from the Canterbury Arts School – through until 2020.

Her output was prodigious.

Raymond’s “Lake Taupo – Shoreline Settlements and Rivers”, an Official 1990 Project featured 70 scenic oils and watercolours from around the lake.

Her subsequent pencil drawings of marae arranged by the late Timi Te Heuheu were followed by what Raymond herself called her “most challenging exhibition ever” in 1992.

‘In The Beginning’ was a turning point in her style. Centred around the 23 marae drawings, she presented some different related works, calling them “abstract expressions of local history.”

Two and a half weeks into the exhibition, after much soul-searching, Raymond withdrew all the unsold abstracts from sale, saying: “I couldn’t watch the remainder being sold off. They are the first fruits of a new path which has opened up for me as an artist... Their value as part of the integrity of the entire exhibition, far outweighs their monetary value to me.”

Her 1995 ‘A Portrait of Tongariro National Park’ featured over 200 scenic oils and watercolours, including another series of watercolour abstracts, inspired by 27 different locations in the park.

Raymond said of the project: “I drove, walked, tramped, climbed, slid and flew to absorb the park’s beauty. As well as a physical challenge, this exhibition has been a major visual and aesthetic challenge. Elements of texture and colour controlled my artist’s palette.”

Her 1998 ‘Tongariro River Heritage’, a journey down the world renowned river, from its source on Mt Ruapehu to its delta outlet into Lake Taupō, comprised five sets of over 100 paintings; large scenes and still lifes in oil, poetic miniatures and again five abstract expressions in watercolour – which she felt were the exhibition’s five key paintings.

Her last three major exhibitions in 1992, 1995 and 1998 culminated in what Raymond considered the peak of her artistic achievement – her Millenium 2000 Exhibition, ‘A Celebration of Feather and Fibre’ – 30 pairs of abstract expressions, one history-based and the other a heritage-based tribute to New Zealand birdlife. In addition, four major abstract expressions symbolised her four major exhibitions and four special portraits – 68 works.

Other smaller exhibitions were staged in Turangi, Raetihi, often at the Academy of Fine Arts in Wellington and in Rotorua and Whanganui.

She also became a passionate advocate for the arts, assisting in the formation of the Taupō Society of Arts and was an early participant in moves to establish a museum and public gallery in Taupō.

Val Evon Raymond was a recipient of numerous National Art Awards and member of, and exhibitor with, the NZ Academy of Fine Arts. She is survived by her four children and 12 grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Credit: Stuff.co.nz