Firstly, I thank Madame Christiane Devèze Kalachnikoff for granting me the licence allowing the work of Flora Scales to be published online. I am very grateful to Jennifer Kotlarevsky and Geneviève Pascaud whose correspondence facilitated this gift and to Christopher Gill who advised on the delicate course of the correspondence.
We thank our editor, researcher and website content manager (Statamic) Tamara Rakich whose skill, empathy and discerning eye for detail has so greatly enhanced and enriched the website. Her contribution is exceptional and we are most grateful for her ongoing dedication to the project.
We thank the staff of the libraries, art galleries, museums and archives of New Zealand, Germany, France and the USA, who have unfailingly supplied all we required promptly and courteously despite the restrictions of a pandemic.
Thank you to researchers Tony Cairns, Nicky Clayton, Rosalind Coote and Robert Hancock whose time-line for the exhibition Women in New Zealand Society 1884 – 1958, Dowse Art Museum, Lower Hutt, 17 May – 21 July 1985, was an invaluable resource.
We thank those who have generously given permission for their printed work and images to be included and those who have kindly allowed us to use images of the work of other artists.
We are grateful to those who gave their valuable time to research different aspects of the project: Jennifer Carryer, Gérard Dubosson, Mary Hall and Dr Nelson Wattie.
We thank those who painstakingly translated material from the French and German: Susana Carryer, Gérard Dubosson, Jacqueline and Claude Malet, Jennifer Kotlarevsky and Dr Nelson Wattie.
We are most grateful for the assistance of skilled cataloguers, Mary Hall, Kyla Mackenzie and Tamara Rakich.
I thank Lesley Davey, Maree Gunn, Milana Maric and Marianne Sangster who transcribed reams of hand-written material with speed and accuracy.
We thank several photographers who enabled us to get professional images of Flora Scales’ paintings from around New Zealand and abroad: John Casey, John Collie, Tim Cuff, Cameron Drawbridge, Sam Hartnett, Simon Hewson, Bryan James, Justin Spiers and Shaun Waugh. We also thank the photographers from public institutions who supplied high-quality images for our use.
We thank conservators Camilla Baskcomb, Maria Batiz, Ingrid Ford, Sarah Hillary and Linda Waters for their insights into the history of the paintings and works on paper brought to their attention.
We are grateful for the specialised information received from Gordon Brown, John Drawbridge, Gérard Dubosson, Mandy Fenwick and Mike Maran, which has added to the interest and veracity of the catalogue.
We thank Christopher Gill who has been the mainstay of this project. His consummate knowledge of human nature, his kindness, understanding and unfailing enthusiasm has sustained us throughout. Our gratitude knows no bounds.
We are very fortunate to have been introduced to the expert team at Wildlabs: Eugen Figursky, Kostya Starodub, Artem Verbo and Seo Young, who have created a website worthy of Flora Scales. They have met our frequent requests for information and our inexperience in the field with patience and humour. The result more than fulfils our dream and we are most grateful for their expertise.
Without the support and generosity of Patience Tennent, who allowed open access to family records and her personal reminiscences, telling the story of Flora Scales’s life and the publication of the catalogue of her work could not have happened. We are profoundly grateful for her trust.
Our support team of friends and family have cheered us on to the end. We sincerely thank each one of you.
- B de Lange, 2021