In 2015 Watercolour New Zealand Inc will stage the exhibition 'WWI in watercolours at Splash' in Wellington Cathedral from 18 April – 3 May 2015. The WWI section will feature 60 watercolour paintings, prints and pen and ink sketches by New Zealand WWI servicemen alongside 250 contemporary watercolours for sale in the annual ‘Splash’ exhibition by artist members of Watercolour New Zealand.

Forty original works by 4 New Zealand WWI servicemen, displayed for the first time in 100 years, are from collections held by their families and friends. Their works are mostly small in size and include paintings and sketches of searchlights off Gibraltar, humorous encounters in sea fog, on board the troopship, battlefield landscapes, naval battles, fleet, and countryside in 1914-1918. Three of these artists exhibited at the New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts.

Twenty prints of the watercolours of New Zealand Official War Artists Nugent Welch and George Butler and the renowned Gallipoli Artist Horace Moore-Jones will be displayed from the National Collection of War Art held by Archives New Zealand.

In Splash, the exhibition of contemporary watercolour paintings for sale, members of Watercolour New Zealand may support the WWI theme through the creative use of Flanders poppy red in their paintings where ‘Red is for Remembrance’. Sixty small framed watercolour paintings will be for sale as "Postcards to the front" that could have been sent to servicemen to remind them of New Zealand back home in 1914-1918. The small size of these paintings is also a tribute to those servicemen who could only take small sketch books in their kitbags and to those who sketched and painted on any cardboard or office stationery that they could find.

Watercolour New Zealand is collaborating with Archives New Zealand to raise awareness of the National War Art Collection and to encourage families with WWI artworks on paper to save these for future generations.

Entry to the exhibition is free and visitors can purchase paintings, watch watercolour demonstrations, and attend floor talks on artists’ works, the National War Art Collection and conservation of artworks.

Contact: Claire Clark, Vice President Watercolour New Zealand: tandc.clark@clear.net.nz or ph 04 236 7928.