Olivia Spencer Bower was born in St Neots, Huntingdonshire (more commonly known as Cambridgeshire), United Kingdom on 13 April 1905 and died in Christchurch, New Zealand, on 8 July 1982.

Olivia, encouraged from her early years by her mother, painter Rosa Dixon, pursued a serious artistic career, throughout her life. During the nineteen-twenties and thirties, a period in which New Zealand women artists flourished, Olivia aligned herself with a circle of artists, which formed the basis for The Group and the New Zealand Artists’ Society. They were artistically progressive, critical of the limitations of art institutions and predominantly women. However, in the following decade, serious attention was systematically withdrawn from the achievements of these women, including such other significant artists as Louise Henderson, Rita Angus, Evelyn Page, Rata Lovell-Smith, Flora Scales, Lois White and Doris Lusk.

"Deserted Wagon"

Size: 370mm x 470mm

Medium: Watercolour

Price:  $7900.00

Spencer Bower's paintings are noted for their careful selection of colour and line applied with a spontaneity that defies her meticulous professionalism.