Wednesday, May 28, 2014

tram by Nottingham Street on Karori Road - 2


In reference to the post of 3 August 2011 with a painting, we have received an e-mail from the artist (it can take a while for folks to stumble across our site) attaching the photo above showing the scene circa 1954 with the comment below.  

Even accepting this, the inclusion of a VW Beetle in the painting is questionable as NZ assembly of VWs didn't begin until the same year (1954) that the Karori tram line was closed and trolley bus operation began. Geoff Churchman says he is very familiar with the scene as he grew up in Nottingham Street in the 1960s-1970s and caught the bus where the car on the right is parked for about 20 years.  The service station on the left of the photo was rebuilt in the 1950s. 

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The description claims that the houses on the left are `artistic licence' and the photo below from Google claims to illustrate that the houses featured in my painting are not the actual houses in the street. In fact the houses in the painting did, and still do exist. The Art Deco style house on the extreme left with the concrete retaining wall at street level is at No. 107 Karori Road, the one beyond with the chimney is at No. 111 Karori Road. The houses in the Google picture are at Nos. 103 and 105 Karori Road. Attached is an extract of a black and white photograph from the period upon which the painting is based, and you will see that the houses in my painting are represented correctly.

Regards, Phil Dickson Artist

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