In Faces and Flowers, acclaimed poet Dinah Hawken responds to the works of Dunedin artist Patricia France, who began painting in her fifties while living at Ashburn Hall, a psychiatric institution in Dunedin. Patricia’s psychiatrist encouraged her to ‘paint out the past’ through her art, and she began in watercolour and gouache before moving on to oils. Her early abstracts evolved into vibrant compositions that often feature women, children, landscapes and flowers. Towards the end of her career her eyesight began to deteriorate, but she continued to paint.

Patricia France’s works have now been shown in more than 30 exhibitions throughout New Zealand – including, in 2024, at Toi Mahara in Waikanae.

In her intimate, unrhymed sonnets, Dinah Hawken addresses a friend she never met, seeking to make a connection across time with the artist and her world.

Praise for Dinah Hawken

‘It is personal, it can be political, and it is people-rich. These vital themes and the trademark luminous writing are here again, in poetry that digs deeper into existence, linking girl to woman, life and death, peace ahead of war, the power of silence and the power of the spoken.’ —Paula Green, Kete Books

‘Few writers have the skill to return to the land and the sea with such originality and genuine knowing as Hawken.’ —Sarah Jane Barnett, NZ Booksellers

Dinah Hawken was born in Hāwera in 1943 and lives in Paekākāriki. Faces and Flowers is her tenth collection of poetry.