Art sale helps a family

Watching art enthusiasts out-do each other with the on-line bidding for Summer Jamieson's latest acrylic painting has been exciting for the Waihopai Valley artist.

The Last Muster, a 1.5 metre-long work, sold for $4550 when the Trade Me auction closed at 8pm on Sunday.

It was Jamieson's contribution to the Walker Family Appeal which started after Brendon Edward Walker, 39, was electrocuted on the farm he managed at Quail Downs near Kaikoura on January 28. He left behind wife Sarah, a 7-year-old son and a 9-year-old daughter.

"I hadn't met the family but I read about it in the newspaper and I was gutted for them [after the accident]," Jamieson said last week.

Her sons are a similar age to the Walker children, who had to call emergency services when they found their father dead in a paddock after he was hit by a power line and their mother was seriously burned trying to help him.

Jamieson is also friends with Mrs Walker's best friend Amanda Henderson, who started the appeal.

When Ms Henderson phoned and asked Jamieson to sell a painting that could be auctioned for the appeal, the artist refused.

"But I was happy to paint something specially for her."

Most of her paintings show hunting and wildlife scenes but a musterer seemed a more fitting tribute for Mr Walker, who loved his work in the high-country. "Mustering, that's what Brendon loved to do. Unfortunately, his life was cut short."

The Last Muster is a Jamieson original but she searched the web for ideas before starting it.

Special inspiration came from a Marlborough Express photographer who had followed a late-autumn muster in the Awatere in 2010. In one of the pictures he took, farm hand Sean Dobbs and his dogs became silhouette figures on the crest of a hill against the sky.

After painting her version of the scene, Jamieson learned Mr Dobbs had shifted to a property beside the one Mr Walker managed at Quail Flat and was friends with the Walker family.

"He was stoked the photo was used [for the painting]."

Photographer Ben Curran is pleased, too.

"You can look at the painting and see it's similar to the photograph; but it's a good rendition of it and it's a really nice painting," he said.

Knowing an image he captured through a camera lens had been recreated on canvas to help a family in need also felt good, Curran said.

The Last Muster auction closed on Sunday but the Walker Family Appeal continues until the end of the month.