J. S. Parker

[3] During his time as Hodgkins fellow he became friends with former Fellowship recipient Ralph Hotere, who became Parker's unofficial artistic mentor.

His key works are large-scale colour field abstracts inspired by the Marlborough landscape that surrounds Blenheim.

These works were an attempt to express the colours of the Marlborough landscape in musical terms, "creating a symphonic tone poem in paint [...], with bold, heavily impastoed canvases which nevertheless have both subtle delicacy and a rigorous use of geometry".

[4] In the 2002 Queen's Birthday and Golden Jubilee Honours, Parker was appointed a New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to painting.

Parker: Plain song, written by art historian Damian Skinner.