{{Short description|New Zealand artist (1932–2022)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=December 2022}} {{Use New Zealand English|date=December 2022}} {{Infobox person | name = Joan Fear | honorific_suffix = {{post-nominals|country=NZL|MNZM|size=100%}} | image = | alt = | caption = | birth_name = Joan Elizabeth Gibbison | birth_date = {{Birth date|1932|04|02|df=y}} | birth_place = Raglan, New Zealand | death_date = {{Death date and age|2022|10|11|1932|04|02|df=y}} | death_place = | resting_place = | other_names = | occupation = {{Cslist|Painter|teacher}} | spouse = {{Marriage|Laurie Fear|1955||end=separated}} | children = 2 | notable_works = }}
'''Joan Elizabeth Fear''' {{post-nominals|country=NZL|MNZM}} ({{nee|'''Gibbison'''}}; 2 April 1932 – 11 October 2022) was a New Zealand artist and teacher, known for her paintings of Waikato landscapes and portraits. She began exhibiting her work in the 1960s after joining the Waikato Society of Arts (later becoming a life member and patron of the society). In the 1980s she was able to leave her job working as a schoolteacher and become a full-time artist. She continued to paint into her later years; an exhibition was hosted in 2012 by the Waikato Museum to mark her 80th birthday.
==Early life and family== Fear was born on 2 April 1932 in Raglan, and raised on a farm in nearby Kauroa<!-- Q25660398 -->. She was the sixth of nine children of Jessie Gibbison (née Carr) and Frank Gibbison.<ref name="Swainson">{{cite news |last1=Swainson |first1=Richard |title=An artist, from school blackboard sketch to exhibitions: Joan Elizabeth Fear MNZM, 1932–2022 |url=https://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/130306171/an-artist-from-school-blackboard-sketch-to-exhibitions-joan-elizabeth-fear-mnzm-19322022 |access-date=5 December 2022 |work=Stuff |date=29 October 2022}}</ref><ref name="Irvine">{{cite news |last1=Irvine |first1=Denise |title=Without fear |url=https://www.stuff.co.nz/waikato-times/life-style/6864036/Without-fear |access-date=12 December 2022 |work=Waikato Times |date=5 May 2012}}</ref> Her mother had worked as a governess and her father had fought at Gallipoli in World War I before returning home to run the family farm.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Irvine |first1=Denise |title=Frank's Farm |url=https://www.proquest.com/newspapers/franks-war/docview/865011068/se-2? |access-date=13 December 2022 |work=Waikato Times |date=23 April 2011 |page=YW6}}</ref> Fear attended Kauroa School and Raglan District High School.<ref name="Swainson"/><ref name="Irvine"/>
Fear's artistic talents were recognised in her childhood, but her mother forbade her from attending art school due to concerns about immorality. She instead took art courses by correspondence while at high school and also learned from her older sister Dorothy, who had studied art as part of her teaching course. As a young woman, Fear lived and worked on the family farm and used a portion of the farmhouse verandah as her artist's studio.<ref name="Swainson"/><ref name="Irvine"/>
After working in a bookstore for a period, she spent time working in the South Island, where she met her husband Laurie Fear at night art classes. They were married in 1955 and moved to Hamilton. They had two children, and would later separate in the 1990s when Fear was in her 60s.<ref name="Swainson"/>
==Artistic career== After moving to Hamilton, Fear continued to take night classes, joined an artist's collective called the Studio Group based at the studio of Ray Starr<!--Q64514838--> and rented a studio space. In 1960, she joined the Waikato Society of Arts,<ref name="Swainson"/><ref>{{cite news |last1=Henson |first1=Narelle |title=Women without borders |url=https://www.proquest.com/newspapers/women-without-borders/docview/1399163450/se-2? |access-date=12 December 2022 |work=Waikato Times |date=11 July 2013 |page=11}}</ref> and her paintings were featured in a 1962 exhibition.<ref name="Swainson"/> She was a well-known female artist in Waikato during the late 20th century, together with Ruth Davey<!--Q115684078--> and Judy Pickard<!--Q115684070-->.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Dornauf |first1=Peter |title=Judy Pickard's funeral ends a chapter in Hamilton's history |url=https://www.stuff.co.nz/waikato-times/opinion/78146644/judy-pickards-funeral-ends-a-chapter-in-hamiltons-history |access-date=12 December 2022 |work=Waikato Times |date=22 March 2016}}</ref> In 1964 she donated paintings to the University of Waikato which had not previously had an art collection. Her first solo exhibition was in 1965 at the Hamilton City Art Gallery and featured paintings of landscapes near Raglan such as Whale Bay.<ref name="Swainson"/> A review in the ''Waikato Times'' called her an "industrious little painter".<ref name="Swainson"/> In the same year she was the recipient of the Booth & Chapman Art Award for a watercolour called ''Top of the Morning'' featuring two children riding ponies.<ref name="Swainson"/><ref name="Irvine"/>
Fear continued to participate in exhibitions during the late 1960s and 1970s, and held further solo exhibitions in 1971, 1974 to 1976 and 1978.<ref name="Swainson"/> In 1966 she began teaching art at Waikato Diocesan School for Girls and Hamilton Boys' High School. She also judged art competitions, selected work for exhibitions,<ref name="Swainson"/> and attended and organised local arts festivals.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Henger |first1=Karyn |title=The Arts Crowd |url=https://www.proquest.com/newspapers/arts-crowd/docview/313886972/se-2? |access-date=12 December 2022 |work=Waikato Times |date=22 February 1997 |page=14}}</ref><ref name="Work">{{cite news |title=Work for local arts groups recognised |url=https://www.proquest.com/newspapers/work-local-arts-groups-recognised/docview/313825832/se-2? |access-date=12 December 2022 |work=Waikato Times |date=31 December 2005 |page=A7}}</ref> In 1972 she founded the Waikato Society of Arts (WSA) Arts School, which continues to operate {{as of|2022|lc=yes}}.<ref name="Swainson"/> In the late 1970s she and her husband renovated their house to create a studio area.<ref name="Swainson"/>
In the 1980s she was able to become a full-time artist.<ref name="Irvine"/> Her notable work in this decade included a large painting for the new Hamilton City Council building, a wall hanging for the Waikato Embroiderers' Guild, and a painting that was presented as an official gift by the city of Hamilton to the city of Urawa in Japan. Ross Jansen, then the mayor of Hamilton, described Fear as "a foremost painter".<ref name="Swainson"/> In 1984 her oil painting ''Entrance'' received the Gallagher Group National Art Award.<ref name="Swainson"/>
''In Awfully Good Taste'' was a 1997 solo exhibition, her first in 10 years, featuring still-life paintings of food. In an article about the exhibition, the ''Waikato Times'' described her as "one of the Waikato's leading artists".<ref name="Valois">{{cite news |last1=Valois |first1=Wendy |title=Facing Fear |url=https://www.proquest.com/newspapers/f-c-i-n-g-e-r/docview/313874522/se-2? |access-date=12 December 2022 |work=Waikato Times |date=1 November 1997 |page=14}}</ref> In 1999 she collaborated with other Waikato artists on an exhibition about time and mortality at the ArtsPost gallery.<ref>{{cite news |title=Art for the New Millennium |url=https://www.proquest.com/newspapers/art-new-millennium/docview/313553227/se-2? |access-date=12 December 2022 |work=Waikato Times |date=19 May 1999}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=McEwan |first1=Ann |title=Reviews: What: Time of Your Life exhibition. |url=https://www.proquest.com/newspapers/reviews/docview/313569357/se-2? |access-date=13 December 2022 |work=Waikato Times |date=24 May 1999}}</ref>
==Later life and death== Fear's later solo exhibitions included ''Acclimatised'' in 2002, ''Four Decades of Painting by an Otago Regionalist'' in 2004 hosted by the University of Waikato and ''Indigenous'' in 2008, which featured paintings of New Zealand native flora and fauna.<ref name="Swainson"/> Her style has been described as expressionist or impressionist, and her preferred medium was oil, although she also painted in watercolour and gouache.<ref name="Irvine"/> A review of ''Acclimatised'' for the ''Waikato Times'' said that "subtlety of colour, delicacy of line and assuredness of technique" are characteristic of Fear's art.<ref>{{cite news |last1=McEwan |first1=Ann |title=Review: What: Acclimatised, by Joan Fear. |url=https://www.proquest.com/newspapers/review/docview/313739724/se-2? |access-date=12 December 2022 |work=Waikato Times |date=20 August 2002 |page=2}}</ref>
In the 2006 New Year Honours she was appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to the arts.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.dpmc.govt.nz/node/376 |title=New Year honours list 2006 |date=31 December 2005 |publisher=Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet |access-date=28 July 2016}}</ref> She was also a patron of the Waikato Society of Arts, and was made a life member in 1996.<ref name="Swainson"/><ref name="Irvine"/><ref name="Work"/>
In 2012, to mark her 80th birthday, the Waikato Museum held an exhibition of her work, titled ''Fearless''. Leafa Wilson<!--Q67900383-->, the museum's curator of art, noted that the work in the exhibition represented only some of her paintings, because Fear's works were "living in collections across the country, in the National Portrait Gallery, in homes, galleries and collection painting racks".<ref name="Swainson"/><ref name="Irvine"/> Fear attended the exhibition's launch event despite only being released from hospital two days before, having suffered a stroke six weeks previously.<ref name="Swainson"/><ref name="Irvine"/> At the time, the ''Waikato Times'' reported that an oil painting by Fear could sell for as much as {{NZ$}}10,000.<ref name="Irvine"/>
Fear died on 11 October 2022.<ref name="Family obit">{{cite news |title=Joan FEAR Obituary |url=https://notices.nzherald.co.nz/nz/obituaries/nzherald-nz/name/joan-fear-obituary?pid=202992686 |access-date=6 December 2022 |work=The New Zealand Herald |date=15 October 2022}}</ref> After her death, Wilson said she was the greatest Waikato painter of the 20th century, and that "her ability to mould and shape paint was exemplary and sculptural and beautiful and was deeply informed by not just what she saw but by intuiting and interpreting nature".<ref name="Swainson"/>
== References == {{Reflist}}
== External links == * [https://collection.waikatomuseum.org.nz/persons/428/joan-elizabeth-fear Collection of Fear's artwork at the Waikato Museum]
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Fear, Joan}} Category:1932 births Category:2022 deaths Category:People from Raglan, New Zealand Category:New Zealand landscape painters Category:Members of the New Zealand Order of Merit Category:21st-century New Zealand painters Category:20th-century New Zealand painters Category:20th-century New Zealand women artists Category:21st-century New Zealand women artists Category:New Zealand schoolteachers