Abroad: The Travel Journals and Paintings of Cranleigh Harper Barton

Description

Feilding-born Cranleigh Barton travelled extensively most of his life, and his journals and paintings capture a world that has vanished. He began his diary in 1908 when he was 17; ten years later he took up the challenge of becoming a watercolour artist. When he wasn't abroad, Cranleigh lived a comfort-able bachelor existence, creating a home and much-admired garden on a Christchurch hillside overlooking the Pacific. Cranleigh compiled over 80 journals, and his water-colours number in the thousands. Abroad brings selected entries and paintings together for the first time. They shine a light on the richness of an artist's life in the first half of the 20th century in New Zealand, Australia, the UK, Europe and the East.

GERRY BARTON is a great-nephew of Cranleigh, who was a familiar figure in his childhood. There were postcards from far-flung places abroad and, when Cranleigh was home, visits up a long path to his hide-away full of exotica from his travels. Gerry has had a career in museums in various parts of the world. His last book, in collaboration with Philip Heath, is Coral Route: Tasman Empire Airways Ltd, Flying Boats & the South Pacific.