By Chris Hewitt July 10th 2025
It was a cold, overcast, windy, drizzly wintery day when our depleted group of nine members arrived at the home of our hosts. The enthusiastic, friendly welcome we received into their cosy home and work spaces more than made up for this inhospitable weather. We were extremely impressed by the hard work and thoughtfulness that our hosts had put into the preparation for our the visit. They had bought their home in a somewhat neglected state about five years ago and together had done extensive renovations and rebuilds. We were welcomed into their lounge, the walls well filled with a great variety of Liz’s work and we were comfortably seated and heated aside a glowing log burner.
Rudie took the hot drink orders and we enjoyed biscuits whilst Liz gave us deep insights into the trials and tribulations of a most dedicated, conscientious artist. She quoted her father as saying words to the effect that life is one problem after another. And so it had transpired for her. Liz had had an in interest in art from early childhood and had many relatives with art interests. When she was twenty years old she moved from Christchurch to Dunedin to attend Art School where she thrived and settled. Liz enjoys using many different media, fabrics, acrylics, oils, pastels and water colours.
Liz told us that she had found that her art had been most critical to her health and happiness and that she felt a compulsion to continue to be creative. The abundance of work that she showed us was ample evidence of that. In the late nineties she won an art competition which got one of her paintings onto the front cover of the regional Telecom telephone directory and repeated the success several years later. Around this time she made some hand painted wood cuts prints of Peninsula wild life and plants, now adorning this writer’s hallway.
Liz met her partner, kindred spirit and soulmate, Rudie Verhoef and they were married in 2005. Born in the Netherlands he came to NZ in early childhood. He has a strong family background of wood workers, carpenters and builders and has specialised in the restoration of heritage buildings both here and overseas. His manual and creative skills were responsible for turning an old boat shed into Fleur’s place at Moeraki. We learnt that Rudie too had suffered some harrowing experiences in early life and serious health issues more recently and both his and Liz’s resilience to misfortune and their work ethic impressed us greatly, as well as their mutual devotion and happiness.
In addition to their to their house renovation and rebuild Liz and Rudie constructed her studio using a kit set from Estonia fully insulated with ample double glazed windows, all in the space of 3 days! Rudie now is concentrating on less physically demanding work, enjoying making bowls, platters, garden statues and furniture using untreated native timber.
As a continuing art education project Liz participates in a free Zoom based class weekly during which she has an option to sketch another class member. Her portrait sketches are on display on the walls at The Duck Cafe in Macandrew Bay in an exhibition there, a fund raising campaign. You can buy a portrait for $7! The Exhibition closes on July 23rd so hurry on over.
After our thanks and goodbyes the group repaired to the Portobello Hotel and again enjoyed the warmth of the log burner some nice food and drinks together. All agreed that it had been one of our best visits ever.
