KERRIE HUGHES
“After 15 years in London ... when came back I saw the New Zealand bush as exotic and jungle-like.
YOUR BACKGROUND IS IN FASHION DESIGN. WHEN and why did you start painting?
As far back as I can remember I wanted to be an artist, but it seemed an impossible ideal. My career in fashion was the next best thing I could do in my circumstances. I had a show at Pataka Museum with my friend, the milliner Liza Foreman. It consisted of wedding dresses and headdresses framed by painted ‘verdure tapestry’ backdrops. The backdrops were supposed to be painted by a friend who dropped out, so I painted them myself. Back then I just copied tapestries. I planned to use the backdrops later
