Sheaff Family Gallery

Whatever became of Louisa Marple? That's one of many questions posed in a new exhibition opening in the Sheaff Gallery at the Whakatāne Library and Exhibition Centre.

Louisa Marple was the daughter of John Marple storeowner in Opouriao (Rūātoki North) and Tauarau (Rūātoki South) at the turn of the 20th century. He died aged 61 in 1911. A painting inspired by a studio portrait of Louisa and her father is one of fifteen works created by Evan Woodruffe for his exhibition, Drawn Back.

Woodruffe, who won the Molly Morpeth Canaday Art Award in 2011, spent time researching images in the Whakatāne District Museum photographic collection when he was in town in February as an invited speaker at the 2013 Art Award arts appreciation series.

From the hundreds of photographic data sheets he looked through, Woodruffe chose images from Maungapōhatu, Ōpotiki and Whakatane, in addition to the Marple portrait. A series of three paintings–Clearing the mouth–responds to the blowing up of sacred rocks to improve river depths in Ōhinemataroa, the Whakatāne River.

"The image I came across of the Marples was just so stunning. I've re‐presented it as faithfully as I could. Although the image seems to be from a professional photographer's studio, the wildly cropped composition transports it from the ordinary. It's as if the photographer, taken by Louisa's pretty young face, framed by plenty of cotton and lace (no doubt a sign of John's successful business), is trying to get a shot just for himself. She is standing next to her rather severe looking and seated father, so he has to be subtle. He cannot swivel the camera towards her, so he zooms in, making her face fill as much of the frame as possible, while cutting off her father's chin.

How did this singular and unconventional image come to be in the Museum's archives? Whatever became of Louisa Marple, perhaps an only child, heiress of the Rūātoki general stores?," Woodruffe says.

Woodruffe has close connections with the Eastern Bay of Plenty, having been introduced to the area during frequent camping holidays in Te Kaha with his family in the 1970s.

In 1991 he married into the Jeffery family, who farmed in Ōpōtiki for many generations. Although living in Auckland, Woodruffe maintains strong ties with the Bay, where his daughter lives.

He has featured the area in several significant paintings, including his work in the 2011 Waikato Painting & Printmaking Awards Maungapōhatu, and a large painting of Pūtauaki in his 2012 show The Memory Archive, which was also a selected work in the Molly Morpeth Canaday Art Award 2013.

He also has works in several private collections in the area.