In The Lindis Pass, Central Otago

The Lindis Pass was a location dear to Peter McIntyre. As a boy he had stayed with his older brother Bob, who was a civil engineer in Central Otago, and had spent his days learning to fish on the Lindis River. At 14 McIntyre was employed at a sheep station in the Lindis Pass to shoot deer – earning a shilling for every tail he brought back.

In adult life Peter McIntyre would return to the Lindis Valley many times to capture its’ tussock hills in watercolour and oil.

This painting In The Lindis Pass, Central Otago depicts the Lindis River meandering through the valley. Deep blue shadows carve through the hills and wind along the landscape up beyond what can be seen of the river – implying where its waters lead. In the valley a collection of rural buildings, perhaps a Sheep Station, resides by the river. Around it the land is dotted with boulders and green-tinged tussocks. McIntryre’s use of cool tones sets this painting apart form the dry summer hues or snow-coated winter scenes many New Zealanders expect from paintings of the Lindis Pass.

“It was a magnificent landscape to paint with its rich golds and browns”

(Peter McIntyre, McIntyre Country, pb.1973, p.29)