Untitled

Original owner Diana Mills (nee Westacott), Flora Scales’s great niece.

First date given in accordance with A Friend's Room in a Village near Paris [BC034], dated by the artist for Auckland City Art Gallery exhibition, Helen F V Scales, 1975-1976, confirming the years Scales was painting in the countryside surrounding Bry-sur-Marne, France.

Alternative title and date, French Farmhouse with Rooftops, Stream and Meadows, taken from the exhibition Flora Scales at The Suter Te Aratoi o Whakatū, Nelson, New Zealand, 2018.

Christiane Devèze, Boris Kalachnikoff’s wife, in conversations with Marc Bonamie, Paris, France, 2016, “Flora loved to paint outdoors - nature, landscapes - in sunlight. She often drew and painted animals, especially our dogs and cats, and was very happy painting the plum trees in full bloom in our garden at Bry-Sur-Marne. Boris would often walk with her into the countryside to paint the farmland and houses in earlier days. We would sometimes go together to his parents' country house in Genevieve St Bois, to Provence where my parents lived, or to Bleymard in the Lozère District where my family has a holiday house. We all drew and painted happily, side by side, discussing our work all the time, but keeping our own different styles during these painting holidays.” – ‘Christiane Devezes: Conversations and Letters II’, Flora Scales, The Suter Te Aratoi o Whakatū, Nelson, New Zealand, 2018