Eleanor 'Ella' Juliet Spicer (née Adams, 1876 – 1958) was a New Zealand artist. Her work is included in the collection of the

Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa The Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa is New Zealand's national museum and is located in Wellington. ''Te Papa Tongarewa'' translates literally to "container of treasures" or in full "container of treasured things and people that spring fr ...

, Turnbull library and

Hocken library Hocken Collections (, formerly the Hocken Library) is a research library, historical archive, and art gallery based in Dunedin, New Zealand. Its library collection, which is of national significance, is administered by the University of Otago. T ...

Personal life

Born in

Lawrence Lawrence may refer to: Education Colleges and universities * Lawrence Technological University, a university in Southfield, Michigan, United States * Lawrence University, a liberal arts university in Appleton, Wisconsin, United States Preparator ...

, New Zealand in 1876, she was the daughter of Charles William Adams. Although she moved to Wellington in 1907, Spicer was primarily based in Auckland.

Career

Spicer studied painting in

Dunedin Dunedin ( ; mi, Ōtepoti) is the second-largest city in the South Island of New Zealand (after Christchurch), and the principal city of the Otago region. Its name comes from , the Scottish Gaelic name for Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. Th ...

, under Fanny Wimperis and

Girolamo Nerli Girolamo Pieri Pecci Ballati Nerli (21 February 1860 – 24 June 1926), was an Italian painter who worked and travelled in Australia and New Zealand in the late 19th century influencing Charles Conder and Frances Hodgkins and helping to mo ...

. She began exhibiting from age fifteen and was known for her

watercolour painting Watercolor (American English) or watercolour (British English; see spelling differences), also ''aquarelle'' (; from Italian diminutive of Latin ''aqua'' "water"), is a painting method”Watercolor may be as old as art itself, going back to t ...

and landscapes. Up until 1907, when she married John Edward Diggle Spicer, she exhibited under the name Ella Adams. Spicer exhibited with prolifically within New Zealand including the: * Auckland Society of Arts from 1907 *

Canterbury Society of Arts Centre of Contemporary Art (CoCA, formerly the Canterbury Society of Arts) is a curated art gallery in the central city of Christchurch, New Zealand. The gallery is administered by the Canterbury Society of Arts (CSA) Charitable Trust. Quarte ...

* New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts * Otago Art Society from 1894 to 190 as a working member0 * New Zealand and South Seas Exhibition in Dunedin taking place in 1925-6 Spicer was the mother of artist

Peggy Spicer Mary Margaret Gore Spicer (1908–1984) was a New Zealand artist. Education Spicer was educated at Chilton Saint James School in Lower Hutt, New Zealand, and Diocesan School for Girls, Auckland, Diocesan School for Girls in Auckland. She then ...

. She and her daughter traveled together to England and Egypt, with both exhibiting in Cairo. Her work is included in the collection of the

, Turnbull and Hocken libraries.

Personal life

Career

References

Further reading