Artwork information

Taking up painting at the age of 65, the late Sāmoan painter Teuane Tibbo was committed to her practice and produced an outpouring of artwork over her career. Her signature ‘village scenes’ gave tangible form to the ‘Pacific’ whilst her still-life works were more direct representations of her immediate surroundings in Aotearoa New Zealand.

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Tibbo created few scenes of highly manicured gardens, , the most notable being Self-Portrait in the Garden 1965, a rare self-portrait of the artist tending to a lush garden painted with a careful attention to detail. Adding to this growing knowledge of her painterly interests and approaches, The Fountain (1974) is a unique garden subject. The centre of the composition features a fountain shooting water upwards and cascading down into a serene pond, filled with ducks and simplified green lily pads. Expressive green and yellow brush strokes surround the edge of the pond. The inclusion of a fountain is rare in Tibbo’s works which often feature natural water elements such as waterfalls and rivers.