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<\/a><\/span><\/p>\nGerrit Sijtze de Wagt<\/span><\/p>\n Our New Zealand connection begins with Gerry \/ Gerrit\/ Heit \/ Dad. He was born in Langezwaad, Friesland on 7 February 1930, the eldest of six children. His first job was hand milking cows but he wanted more and successfully volunteered for the army and went to Netherlands Nieuw Guinea for four years. He loved his time there! At the end of his army service the Netherlands gave him a lump sum and paid for him to go to New Zealand. He arrived in Christchurch on 13 May 1952. In the ensuing years he married his kiwi wife, our mother Mary, and worked in many different jobs. Farm work in Springston, Montalto, Coopers Creek, Oxford and View Hill and for the Ministry of Works doing maintenance on the Rangitata irrigation system. He finally found his niche working for the Prison Service which offered him security, housing and promotion. He was well respected in his job by both staff and prisoners and Heit worked there for the next 31 years. Heit travelled back to the Netherlands seven times and always retained his Friesland ways \u2013 hard work and love of the land.<\/span><\/p>\n Ode to Heit<\/span><\/p>\n A new arrival in New Zealand with a bag and not much English,<\/span><\/p>\n A fine drinker of Dutch gin and a lover of Agria and Van Rosa potatoes,<\/span><\/p>\n A life member of the Oxford Working Men\u2019s Club and a champion dart player,<\/span><\/p>\n A royalist who met the King and Queen of the Netherlands in NZ and made the Dutch news,<\/span><\/p>\n A lifelong letter writer to Niesja, his sister and a talker on the phone to his brother in Friesland.<\/span><\/p>\n A champion budgie and canary breeder,<\/span><\/p>\n An avid reader,<\/span><\/p>\n A proud family man,<\/span><\/p>\n A Dutch biker, biking to the prison, Cindy his dog waiting for his return,<\/span><\/p>\n A clog wearing gardener,<\/span><\/p>\n A tea at 5 o\u2019clock kind of guy \u2013 the Dutch clock strikes,<\/span><\/p>\n A coffee at 10am with a Dutch biscuit,<\/span><\/p>\n A man who walked many miles and a planter of many trees,<\/span><\/p>\n A long legged man never comfortable in a car or a plane,<\/span><\/p>\n A creator of our link to the Netherlands and loved by all the Dutch cousins,<\/span><\/p>\n That\u2019s our Gerry, Gerrit, Dad, Heit, Pakke, Clogs, the old bugger,<\/span><\/p>\n A man of few words but when he spoke he was worth listening to.<\/span><\/p>\n Janet de Wagt<\/p>\n I\u2019m the second eldest in a family of six, born in Ashburton in 1957 and educated at Springston and Templeton Primary schools and Riccarton High school in Christchurch. I then studied Graphic Design at Christchurch Technical Institute and my first job was as a photographer at the Correspondence Institute in Lower Hutt, the starting point for a lifetime\u2019s work in the Arts.<\/span><\/p>\n I grew up with the Dutch family on the sideboard, always aware of another world and way of being and as soon as I could I set off to explore the world and meet my Dutch relatives. I felt at home with my fellow long legged cousins and was lucky enough to meet my Dutch grandfather who smoked cigars and consumed gin and spoke very little English. I ended up living and working overseas for 25 years and continued my art practice and have been a self supporting working artist all my life. <\/span><\/p>\n I am an award winning artist well known for my landscape paintings, painted on location in all weathers and conditions. My passion is creativity and I am committed to empowering people to find and develop their own. I have worked with thousands of groups of people in many different countries on both large scale and small projects over my working life. I take a broad sweep of the arts, and am always interested in new ideas and challenges and different ways of working. <\/span><\/p>\n My latest exhibition \u2018Fishy Fakes\u2019 combines my collection of Old Masters\u2019 prints and my passion for painting the South Island coastline and land \u2018en plein air\u2019. It also combines Wild Dunedin \u2013 New Zealand Festival of Nature<\/i> and Dutch Week \u2013 a Celebration.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n The old Masters are concerned with the now and the before, and by reworking them in the Aotearoa New Zealand landscape of today, I have combined these meanings like an exclamation mark highlighting the increasingly complex relationships between the oceans, the land, wildlife and us.<\/span><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.janetdewagt.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/IMG20201220130807.jpg\")
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