Recipient of the 2009 Governor-General Award,

Presented by the Honourable Sir Anand Satyanand in the presence of a full house at the Academy Galleries in Wellington. The Winter show features a retrospective of Jeanne's work entitled....

view the exhibition here

Drawing by Jeanne aged 7

Jeanne Macaskill has been working as an artist and exhibiting her work for over sixty years. After training as an Art Adviser with Gordon Tovey and working for the Education Department in Auckland and Wellington, Jeanne moved to London and spent five years studying full-time to gain a Diploma in Fine Art from Chelsea College of Art and a National Diploma in Design [GB]. She stayed and lived in London and France for seventeen years during which she exhibited in many prestigious exhibitions.

There is a visceral pull about the junction of the land and the sea which is easier to record in art than to describe in words. Jeanne  Macaskill excels in evoking this mysterious and magical property of the shoreline, summed up by the line of the horizon, the gnarled rocks with their sculpted surfaces, and the shifting light. In part it is a personal evocation drawn from a childhood  lived across the road from the beach near Motueka.

'Evening Sea' (detail) woodblock print, enamel and acrylic on board, 2003

She returned to New Zealand in 1972 with her two small sons after her husband died in London. Since then she has lived in Wellington and held many solo exhibitions in many parts of the country including at Elva Bett Gallery, 1976; Victoria University, 1976. She has been included in group exhibitions at Partaka, Porirua; Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, New Plymouth; the Suter Gallery, Nelson and many others. She was elected an Artist Member of the New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts in 1973.

'Last Summer's Past' - 1981, Enamel, acrylic, crayon, ink and collage on board 1300mm x 1300mm

Jeanne is also known as a very successful teacher. In 2004, she was made a Member of the Order of New Zealand [MNZM] by her Majesty the Queen. In 2006 a special exhibition ‘Jeanne Macaskill, Day by Night’ curated by Gregory O’Brien and Emma Bugden was held in the Hirschfield Gallery of the Wellington City Art Gallery to commemorate her 75^th birthday.

'Heaven and Earth' mixed media on board, 2001	'Table and Chair (detail)' oil and plaster on canvas, 1961

Jeanne was on the Council of the New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts for some years and was Vice President for 4 years. She currently lives in central Wellington with her husband Don Aimer.

'Button Box', 'Story of a Day' & 'Small Dream Box'	"Rocks by the City in the Rain' - watercolour/collage

‘For Macaskill painting remains a way of saying “we lived, we absolutely lived there.”

                                                                       – Gregory O’Brien

'Waterline' with Jane Brimblecombe - 2005, mixed media/mirror on board

With the presentation of the Governor-General Award Jeanne becomes the latest Fellow of The New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts.

more Academy Fellows