On Saturday night, the Central Stories Museum and Art Gallery hosted an opening for the Elizabeth Stevens exhibition "Rediscovering Elizabeth Stevens — creating order from chaos".
The exhibition is the biggest of the late Alexandra artist’s work, featuring 68 paintings and is the first since she died in 2009.
To celebrate the opening, her daughters, Miranda Van Asch, who lives in Sydney and Lea Maalfrid, who lives in Stockholm, returned to their hometown to celebrate their mother’s work.
Ms Van Asch is a book publisher, who distributes English books to Australia and New Zealand, and Ms Maalfrid is a singer-songwriter — her career included winning an Apra Silver Scroll in 1977 for her song Lavender Mountain.
They said their mother’s dedication to the arts introduced them to writing and music, which inspired them to take up such careers.
They were staying in the town for six nights and return to their homes next week.
Their father, Geoff, was the publisher of the Central Otago News for many decades.
The Stevens had three children — their son Kerry died in 2013.
More of Elizabeth Stevens’ family attended the opening including children-in-law, four of her five grandchildren and five of her nine great-grandchildren.
Art consultant Grant Banbury, of Christchurch, speaking at the opening, said of Stevens’ style, "[The paintings] are haunting, spiritual, as if seeking out or guiding us to an unknown energy, a light at the end of the tunnel. I believe there is a strong sense of journeying in Elizabeth’s work."
The exhibition started on Sunday and runs until April 29.
