In loving memory
In 2005 I was contacted by my old High school in New Plymouth to write something about my mum as while a member of the Parent teacher association, she had donated several illustrations to the school celebrating their centenary year in 1985.
It appeared in the "Springboard" newsletter April 2005...
SHIRLEY PIMM
28.8.29 - 30.7.04
NPGHS PARENT TEACHERS ASSOCIATION
I have been asked to write about my mother - this very special lady is the artist behind the illustrations celebrating the NPGHS Centenary in 1985. Shirley was a woman of integrity who had an appreciation of all things fine. She has not only been a beautiful artist but an expert gardener, potter, historian, lover of poetry and literature and an expert Mum. Her thoroughness and dedication to detail has been legendary
Shirley's life spanned over some wonderful years in our history Her father was the manager of an apple and pear orchard and she grew up with her brothers and sister at Redwood Valley, Nelson. Her first job was in Nelson as a typist with the Health Department, she and her sister Beverley traveled together to work by bus each day. Later she joined the NZ Airforce and retrained as a librarian in Christchurch and went to Woodbourne to work in the technical library where she met my dad, Leading Aircraft Man Richard Pimm during the winter of 1952. By October Richard was being sent to the UK to okay engines on the Sunderland aeroplanes before their flight out to NZ. In December 1952 they married and went to the UK. Shirley traveled through the country, drew and painted the scenery and ambled through the history. It was a romantic and magical time - they would return there to holiday in later years. Two years later they returned to NZ - to Woodbourne to Napier to Western Samoa then together with their 6 children New Plymouth in the early seventies.
She sat and passed School Certificate in Art and then became an art tutor. She often had commissioned work - usually pen and ink/watercolour illustrations of homes for families all over Taranaki. Quite often, some of the kids would go with her while she did the first draft. She was meticulous about detail and often put considerable time, thought and effort into the final piece. Embroidery sewing, art, pottery, printing, painting, quilting - her work was always about our home and in great abundance during all my school and early adult years. When I left home at 21 she finally got her art studio! She always had a sketch book and scraps of paper, pages marked in magazines -a collaboration of ideas that were always well organized and she was always working on another piece. She managed a huge production of work in all areas of art, not just in pen and ink drawings. Even in her later years when she first developed breast cancer and after 12 years its secondaries she told me how annoyed she was that she still had at least another 10 years of art left in her that she had been cheated of.
I owe what talent I have to this woman and now with children of my own I can truly comprehend her loving commitment to us. I also share her passion for art and design and her love for learning new skills.
In loving memory
Bronwyn Rate (nee Pimm) NPGHS 1978-1981
Bronwyn trained initially in nursing, then fashion and is now a fashion designer in Christchurch. Shirley's work did hang in B Block prior to the move by senior management and admin to the millennium building and will now hang in the millennium building library (this year to be officially named the Gwyneth Greenhill Library).