New Zealand painter Douglas MacDiarmid has spent comparatively little time in the company of other artists, mostly preferring to let their work do the talking rather than engage in relationships and creative alliances. There were exceptions of course and the late, multi-talented John Drawbridge was one of them, in their early days in Wellington. This was in the period 1949-50 when MacDiarmid returned to New Zealand for a year, and found himself working in the capital.

Always a ball of energy, around archival duties at Alexander Turnbull Library and doing news and voice over work on Radio 2YA, 27-year-old MacDiarmid gathered a close group of talented contemporaries together for weekly drawing sessions at his flat in Wadestown. The circle included Drawbridge; Helen Hitchings (who was Douglas’ constant companion at the time); printmaker, potter and painter Juliet Peter, and sometimes the older modernist painter Helen Stewart.

This was a very productive arrangement. They talked and sketched, using one another as models as they honed their figurative and observational techniques. It was an exploratory time for them all and led to life-long careers of great imagination and accomplishment.

In his choice to return abroad, Douglas was the only one able to make a living entirely from his brushes…even if it was years before he enjoyed any level of comfort.

Some of the results of these happy sessions are still treasured in private collections in New Zealand, including John Drawbridge’s take on Douglas as a young man on the threshold of his chosen career, which is currently part of the Colours of a Life: Douglas MacDiarmid exhibition at the New Zealand Portrait Gallery in Wellington, supporting the release of his biography of the same name.

MacDiarmid remembers it as being a very harmonious group, they all got along well without any disagreements. Mostly they sketched themselves but sometimes one of the group recruited a couple of Samoan girls as live models. There is also fine legacy of their drawing circle housed in the Alexander Turnbull Library art archives, a number o which are reproduced in his book.

There was another drawing group in Wellington that some of them also frequented, a salon type arrangement run by much the older Helen Crabb, who preferred to be known as Barc. Although Douglas admired her work, he had no interest in being part of her coterie.

In 1949-50, Douglas’ address was 7 Grosvenor Terrace, Wadestown. A diary entry for 30 August 1949 records: “Last night, the first in this room…listening to a howling wind, and the drifting wallpaper, and the trains hissing below. Looking for a job.”

MacDiarmid painted a number of memorable cityscapes from this flat – the railway yards, Mount Victoria, the harbour framed in a window – two of which are in the biography (on pp.142-143). He also painted the faces he saw while walking home, including the portrait of this Chinese girl.

While in Wellington for the launch of the biography in July 2018, we took a drive around the neighbourhood to see if the the old house is still there. After emailing Douglas a photo of the Wadestown house, he replied with “Happy Memories” remarking: “Ye gods & little fishes! A frequent exclamation when Mother was taken aback. I’d quite forgotten the Wadestown address but not the house. Mine was the lower bow-window, and the north bound train rattled past below.”