Doris Lusk

Doris Lusk (Dunedin, 1916 – 1990) was a New Zealand painter best known for her landscapes, and also a potter, art teacher and university lecturer. Her work belongs to the Canterbury painting of the mid-twentieth century, and today it is a reference for understanding the relationship between industrial architecture and the land in New Zealand.

She trained at the Dunedin School of Art from 1934 to 1939, where she was taught by J. D. Charlton Edgar and attended life classes under Russell Clark. In 1943 she moved to Christchurch with her husband, Dermot Holland, and soon became associated with The Group, an association of artists based in the city. In the 1940s she painted a series on the engineering works of Lake Waikaremoana, and later took the wharf at Onekaka, in Golden Bay, as her main subject for about five years.

Her style is restrained and ordered, with a steady focus on industrial structures set in natural landscapes. From 1979 she painted a series based on central Christchurch buildings being demolished, working from photographs and newspaper images. As a ceramicist she signed her pieces as Doris Holland and served as president of the Canterbury Potters' Association from 1970 to 1972. She was posthumously awarded the Governor General Art Award in 1990. Her legacy has been reassessed in recent exhibitions and studies, which highlight a sustained career pursued despite the time constraints of family life.