Kōrero: Regional cultural life

'Silverstream' was typical of the outdoor impressionist style of painting which James Nairn encouraged among Wellington painters in the 1890s. Born in Scotland, Nairn became a teacher of painting at the Wellington Technical School in 1891 and then established the Wellington Art Society to encourage more experimental work than was favoured by the academy. The club rented Pumpkin Cottage in Silverstream for outdoor painting, and this 1896 watercolour would have been painted by Nairn while based there.