Karl Maughan 'Ashhurst'

Just 14 kilometres north east of Palmerston North, Ashhurst sits on a vast plain, protected by Wharite Peak, at the end of the Ruahine Ranges. The Māori name for the place is Raukawa, named after an aromatic plant used to make scent. The town has a population of around 3000, vastly outnumbered by the mobs of sheep which graze the surrounding farmland of the Manawatū-Whanganui region. The mighty Manawatū joins the Pohangina there, then turns southwest and makes its way through Palmerston North to Foxton and the Tasman Sea. The rich alluvial soils of this river delta make it a great place for gardens, which is why the Maughans moved there from Colyton near Feilding in 1977 when their only child, Karl, was just eleven years old.

His mother, landscape designer Lesley Maughan, set about making her forever garden. Her training during the Diploma of Amenity Horticulture had equipped her for civic and municipal plantings, and she worked on a grand scale, massing plantings for colour in all seasons. Hundreds of seedlings flourished under her care, and she was just 15 minutes-drive away from the nursery at Massey University in Palmerston North where she taught Horticultural Science for nine years. Living in London for three years from 1994 until 1997, Maughan must have been astonished by the abundant growth when he revisited his mother’s garden. He records the majesty of its maturity in this painting. Here you can see how the perennials have been planted to create borders, and larger trees are positioned near the edges to create shelter. Crazy paving in limestone continues defines a path through the shrubbery, and all seems orderly, tidy and well-maintained.

It’s a country garden, the perfect antidote to crowded smoggy cities like London where the artist had been living. In Ashhurst, the weather is behaving well: the sky is politely blue, and the multitude of plants are bathed in dazzling sunlight. While they seem to bustle and bristle with energy in the painter’s characterization of them, these plants are obedient, staying confined in their beds. The painting is a paean to the idea of order over nature. As the artist says, “Gardens are like the ultimate part of civilizing ourselves – taming the wild. There’s a universality about that”.

It was Lesley’s garden at 72 Guilford Street in Ashhurst that had started Karl Maughan on the path to becoming New Zealand’s most famous garden painter. In the summer of 1986 he determined to make it the subject for his Master of Fine Arts degree at Elam. Documenting it with just eight photographs, he reproduced it on a large scale and sold out all the works from his first dealer gallery show. One of these works, a ditych painted in 1987 and purchased from the Brooker Gallery in Wellington, is now in the collection of Victoria University, and also shows the southern end of the family’s garden. Maughan’s technique is seductive. The three metre width of the painting and low viewpoint invite the viewer in. A grouping of golden yellow flowers act like a vector, directing the eye into the depth of the painting, where the sanctuary of the paving stones form a consoling loop. The floral elements complement the blue-green tones of the foliage and sky above.

Stacking plants up the picture plane, Maughan shows how his mother has built this garden, imagining how the textures and colours will work together as she planted. He shows how landscape design is an art form, working with colour, texture, mass. To gaze at this painting is to feel yourself transported to a warm and sunny place where you can marvel at the beauty of nature while admiring the skill which has brought these plants together so harmoniously.