KEY POINTS:
Vivienne Ballantyne took up painting when artists of a similar age might be expecting retrospective shows.
She had done some art in London in the 1950s but really developed it on her return to Auckland in the 1970s, producing work described as folksy.
Ballantyne grew up in Raetihi and worked for the Southern Cross newspaper in Wellington, where she met her husband, author David Ballantyne.
She is survived by a son and a grandson.
