Patricia France

In those days, a failed marriage carried a social stigma and it may have been convenient to pretend that he had died rather than admitting that he had deserted his familyAfter her father's "death", she and her mother lived with her grandmother and aunt in Auckland.

Her role was to have children and attend to her husband, helping his to succeed in societyChaperoned by her mother and aunt, she made a grand tour of Europe and studied for two years at a branch of the New York School of Interior Design in Paris.

During World War II, France did social work at the St John Voluntary Aid at the Ellerslie Racecourse Military Hospital.

[3] In time, the constraints of being a dutiful daughter and granddaughter, compounded by lack of money and society's rigid expectations, led to a breakdown, and from the ages of 48 to 55, she boarded voluntarily at a private psychiatric hospital in Dunedin, named Ashburn Hall.

Over time, her watercolour, gouache and oil paintings gained the respect and friendship of the dealer Murdoch MacLennan, and artists such as Colin McCahon and Ralph Hotere.

Another exhibition followed shortly after at the Barry Lett Gallery, in November 1978, and, despite her lack of formal qualification, she became recognised as a remarkable and highly individual painter.

Minimal use of line sharpens her images, frequently of women or girls in generalised landscapes.There's a haunting power in each work, as if France was trying to exorcise the hungry ghosts which had devoured so much of her life.Although, unwell and with failing eyesight, she continued to exhibit and be a patron to young artists until she died at the age of 83, leaving a sizable estate and NZ$390,000 to the Patricia France Charitable Trust for victims of domestic violence.