Symbolic resting place for artist

FAMOUS: The late Colin McCahon.

Photo: MATTHEW GRAY

TOMBSTONE: Don't jump to conclusions.

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Matthew Gray goes grave-hunting out west.

The words etched into the stone are clear - Colin John McCahon Artist.

But don't be fooled into thinking the internationally renowned painter lies beneath.

McCahon, whose narrative and abstract style has fetched record prices at auction, was cremated after his death in 1987 and his ashes were scattered at Muriwai.

It was eight years later, after the death of his wife Anne - an artist and illustrator of school journals - that his children decided to create a more lasting memorial.

And so they included his name on their mother's monument at Swanson Cemetery.

"It just seemed important to record it somewhere," son William, 66, says.

The McCahons spent several years out west in a humble bach that has since been restored by a trust and opened up to the public.

William cares little for the finished product and the memories it evokes of a difficult childhood in an alcoholic home. But the cemetery at Swanson conjures up different feelings - especially in relation to his mother.

It was his sister who stumbled across the little graveyard several years ago.

The wider family was taken by some of the epitaphs on its tombstones and shared a definite affinity with the place.

"The sort of people buried there reflect the kind of society my mother in particular liked," William says.

"The cemetery is just so thoroughly westie - it's the west Auckland we knew when we lived at Titirangi and its occupants are the kind of neighbours you might have had if you were living in Newton Gully during the 1950s.

"My mother's brothers and sisters were relieved when we chose it - they thought it was the right place for her."

William, who once worked as a gravedigger at Hillsborough, also has two siblings, Catherine and Colin (Matthew), buried at Swanson.

Catherine was interred with their mother in 2006.

Colin McCahon was born in Timaru and worked a variety of seasonal and labouring jobs before being hired as a curator at the Auckland Art Gallery in 1953.

He was a lecturer at the Elam School of Fine Arts from 1964 to 1971 when he left to become a fulltime painter.

His ensuing career was dogged by his addiction to alcohol and its contribution to a raft of health problems.

McCahon was 68 when he died.

- © Fairfax NZ News