A Tribute:

Suggested by her English publisher, Rosemary Frances Rees was sent on a nostalgic return trip to her homeland of New Zealand and the resulting book is an affectionate tale of her travels throughout New Zealand.

Images:

Map: I have marked on the map the places that Rees travelled through whilst researching her book.

Nau mai, Haere mai (Welcome): The image on the right hand side of the painting represents: The images on the old NZ postcards and NZ tourist dept. posters of a ‘Maori maiden’ welcoming you to NZ, which also doubles for me as a tour guide. I am of Ngati Raukawa and Tuwharetoa descent along with ties to England and Scotland and proud of it. It seems I look more European to tourists. Lastly it represents all Kiwi women who have represented Aotearoa and shown tourists what a magical country this is!

Stamp: This was the first piece of my tourism & travel series of work and thus I chose to keep the stamp design (from previous work) to represent the connection of post i.e. letters back home to loved ones.