Hamish Allan
Resides Ōtautahi Christchurch
Hamish Allan’s Southward exhibition painting, Beeman Cove, features the Campbell Island Shag endemic to Campbell Island, and the only shag species living on the island. It is one of six pink-footed shag species endemic to New Zealand, making it a rare and special sight and one that Hamish shares with us in such meticulous and pared back detail.
With clear blue skies, and only a suggestion of cumulus clouds building to the left of the painting, Hamish’s stylised Beeman Cove depicts a Campbell Island Shag flying steadily above the Beeman Cove jetty, while another perches comfortably atop a jetty piling. A layered view of bush-covered Campbell Island behind, sandwiched by calm seas front and back, creates a simultaneous sea and aerial view. The otherworldliness of this dual view creates a heightened sense of space and serenity, anchored and tempered by the very real and recognisable green and yellow DoC colour scheme of the jetty shed’s doors.
Beeman Cove is situated in Perseverance Harbour, Campbell Island; New Zealand’s most southern subantarctic island. Established as a historic site in 1956, Beeman Cove served as a primary location for the island's scientific and meteorological stations which included a jetty and a hostel. While the island is now uninhabited and a nature reserve, the area is part of the Campbell Island/Motu Ihupuku Historic Area.