Jacqueline Fahey
Born 1929

Born in Timaru in 1929, Jacqueline Fahey began her painting education in earnest at sixteen, at the Canterbury College School of Art, now Ilam. During her time at the college, she became friends with notable members of the Christchurch collective of exhibiting artists, The Group, including Rita Angus and Doris Lusk. Of these friendships and their impact on her practice, she says, “It wasn't so much that they influenced the way I painted. What they did was allow me to be professional, to think of it as my life.”

Fahey’s distinctive painting style is recognisable for a ravishing use of colour, and her perception of the beauty of the objects that make up a domestic scenario is acute. Expertly realised portraits are candid in their expressions – characters are shown mouths open, mid-argument, or gazing off absentmindedly into the distance. Glimpses of TV sets, record players, and radios are combined with closely observed wine glasses, cups of tea, and bottles of gin. The clamour of crockery and conversation rings through the paintings and spills out into our space as they do into the painted gardens visible through open windows. Later bodies of work see Fahey applying her distinctive flare to urban environments and urban characters, translating domestic politics to their manifestation in the public environment.