Three Trees Brentwood Avenue

Title and date supplied by artist at time of donation, 1979.

Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand documentation notes, “Semi-representational showing three Norfolk Pines, done from the artist's studio in Dominion Road, Auckland / At the time this was painted the artist's eyesight was failing / Rejected by the artist and slashed across the centre, but later mended"

Flora Scales cut this canvas vertically left of centre but later regretted this action. Repaired with an attachment of green canvas backing by James Ross, prior to the donation in 1979. This repair is now concealed by framing.

Two black and white photographs of this work are included in an artist’s file dedicated to Flora Scales at the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, reference Scales, Helen Flora Victoria, 1887-1985, Artist file prints [see Related images 5-8]. The file contains black and white photographs on card of 26 of the artworks in the Alexander Turnbull collection and one not held in the collection [Untitled [Sand Dunes] [BC011]].

Each card measures 167 x 216mm and the image size varies. Each card has handwritten reference notes along the top detailing artist name, title, year, size, and reference number. Further, on the back of each card are handwritten annotations with information including media, reference numbers and location within the physical collection. The overleaf of one of these cards notes, "Canvas slashed & mended. Done from studio in Dominion Road, Auckland."

The cards in this file are undated. Correspondence B. de Lange and Kimberley Stephenson, Research Librarian Pictorial, Alexander Turnbull Library, September 2025, notes, “Neither the associated copy negatives nor the file prints are dated but based on notes I found in the negative register one group (intermittent between 1/2-092380-F and 1/2-092705-F) was in existence by May 1979, while a second group (intermittent between 1/2-162480-F to 1/2-162510-F) had been created by December 1986. Given most of the paintings entered the collection in 1979, this does suggest that the first group shows the works soon after they were accessioned. The second group appears to have been taken during reframing or conservation treatment as many are shown without their stretchers.” It is assumed that a card was made for this work at both dates, resulting in two copies noting similar information.

Scales’s life as an artist in New Zealand in the late 1970s was frequently disrupted by bouts of ill health. Noting her frustration, a visitor to her flat at 38 Brentwood Avenue, Mt Eden, Auckland, looked out of the window and said, “paint that”, resulting in the series of three known paintings based on the trees beyond the Dominion Road flyover, Mt Eden, Auckland [View from Dominion Road [BC087], Three Trees Brentwood Avenue [BC088], Trees in Auckland [BC089]]. Scales described the view in conversation with M. de Lange, 1983 as “…a stone wall with a road on top.”

Scales lived in this Mt Eden address 1975-1978 after she arrived in Auckland from Dunedin. During this time her major solo exhibition, Helen F.V. Scales, was held at the Auckland City Art Gallery. Scales returned to France in late 1976 for a few months before returning again to the Brentwood Avenue address in May 1977. She resided there until 26 October 1978 when she moved to the Rotorua Masonic Village until just before her death in January 1985.

This image is distinguishable from View from Dominion Road [BC087] by the predominantly red and blue brush strokes.