More Than Paintings: Janice Gill Helps Preserve the Lives Behind Southland’s Art

The Winton-born artist is working with museum staff to record the people, places and personal memories behind an archive of more than 400 objects, ahead of a planned 2027 retrospective.

By Webfit News | 14 October 2026

The people in Janice Gill’s paintings are not simply anonymous figures from another time. Some were real Southlanders whose names, backgrounds and stories the artist still remembers.

Now, Gill is helping museum staff preserve those memories alongside her work, ensuring future generations can understand not only what she painted, but who she painted and why.

Invercargill City Council’s museum and heritage services team is cataloguing her extensive archive with the artist’s direct involvement, ahead of a retrospective exhibition planned for 2027.

The collection contains more than 400 objects spanning the 1960s to the present, including artworks, sketchbooks and paintbrushes.

Keeping the people in the picture

Among the archive’s items are preparatory sketches for Bus Stop (Winton Post Office), featuring drawings of residents Gill knew.

Te Unua Museum of Southland Collections Team Leader Tiffany Jenks said working directly with Gill allowed staff to document details that might otherwise disappear.

“Janice remembers the names and backgrounds of the real people depicted in her work, and the reasons why she included them in certain pieces.”

The collaboration preserves a layer of history that cannot necessarily be recovered by looking at a finished painting alone.

It also connects deeply personal experiences with the artworks they inspired. One painting, The Face I Was Looking For Was Not There, depicts Gill’s father’s funeral.

Jenks said hearing Gill discuss her family before examining that work brought its meaning into sharper focus.

A homecoming for the artist and her work

Originally from Winton, Gill spent much of her life near Nelson before returning south three years ago.

Her relationship with Southland’s regional museum stretches back much further. She began donating works around 1976, followed by substantial gifts of artworks and archival material in 2018 and 2023.

She is also creating a new series of paintings that will be gifted to the regional collection.

Gill said the people working with her archive had helped her feel at home after many years away.

“It’s the people working with the museum who have very much made me feel at home. It’s always a challenge to come back after so many years away, but my painting has been the introduction to lots of interesting and lively people,” she said.

She described the younger collections staff as people who could carry her work into the future.

“It is a little bit like having grandchildren, and they can take my work forward into the future. I can’t ask for better than that.”

A childhood connection comes full circle

Gill’s attachment to the museum began when she was about nine.

She recalls a school invitation to become a junior member during the mid-1950s. Her parents provided the one-shilling membership fee, and the resulting card became a treasured possession.

“Like a lot of Southland children, I thought the museum was my place – but really, I mean our place. I always had this feeling of deep attachment to it.”

Decades later, that childhood connection has become a partnership in preserving her creative life and the communities she portrayed.

What happens behind the scenes

The recent appointment of collections technicians Jess Roylands and Yiying Yang has enabled the team to dedicate resources to formally recording Gill’s archive.

The process involves entering each object into the museum’s collection management system, documenting its origins, creation date, history and associated stories, alongside copyright, condition and storage information.

Physical preservation is part of the work too. Items are packed using conservation-grade materials, including acid-free tissue and archival card. Framed artworks are stored on art racks at Te Pātaka Taoka Southern Regional Collections Facility.

For Jenks, preserving an object’s story is as important as preserving the object itself.

“If you disconnect an item from its history, over time it simply becomes something old,” she said.

Gill’s upbringing in Winton and Southland’s influence on her work are central to its significance within the collection.

Preparing for 2027

A retrospective of Gill’s artworks is planned for 2027. The release does not specify exhibition dates or visitor arrangements.

For now, the work is happening behind the scenes: preserving paintings, recording memories and keeping the connections between them intact.

The result will be more than an account of one artist’s career. It will also preserve the identities and experiences of everyday people who became part of Southland’s visual history.

Photo caption: Collections technician Jessica Roylands, left, with artist Janice Gill at Te Pātaka Taoka Southern Regional Collections Facility in Invercargill.

Photo credit: Invercargill City Council.

Source: Invercargill City Council media release, 14 October 2026.