Obituary: Shona McFarlane

Artist, writer and personality. Died aged 72.

Shona McFarlane, who died on Thursday, painted for more than 50 years.

She created thousands of paintings, from formal portraits and intricate architectural drawings, and many still-lifes, which became her trademark in later years.

In the 1970s she also became a household name as a panellist on the popular television show Beauty And The Beast, hosted by Selwyn Toogood.

She also worked on TVNZ's Kaleidescope programmes and fronted the arts programme Highway One.

Her paintings, mainly in acrylic or watercolour, did not sell for huge prices but were popular.

Her work is held by several galleries, including the Museum of New Zealand, Te Papa.

Shona McFarlane said in 1999, when her memoirs were published, that she thought some artists charged too much.

"I've never been a pusher, a marketer. I tend to let it happen and in this day and age you have to be an upfront person to get work in the right places," she said.

She also carried out a number of large stained-glass commissions, at places such as the Manukau City Centre, Linton Army Camp, the Dunedin Public Library, Dunedin Teachers College and St Andrew's Church, Kohimarama, in Auckland.

Shona McFarlane was born in Gore on March 27, 1929, and studied at Dunedin Teachers College to be an art teacher before attending the Hammersmith School of Art in London.

Switching to journalism, she spent years as lady editor of the defunct Evening Star newspaper in Dunedin, where in the late 1960s she campaigned for the preservation of historic buildings. In 1969 she became the first woman member of the Arts Council.

She established the Moray Gallery in Dunedin in 1972, which she ran for the next 11 years.

In 1994, she was created a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the New Year's Honours list.

She married a former Minister of the Arts, Allan Highet, in 1976. Mr Highet died in 1992. Despite missing her husband and battling illnesses, she continued to paint and write.

"You learn that you have to pick yourself up and get on with it. Throughout life you must not waste time on regret, or wishing things could be different, when you know they cannot be," she said in 1994.

"When you face death, when you get older, when you see there's a timespan ahead of you, to sit around and let it flit by is just awful."

- NZPA