Lady Painters traces the elegant thread of flower painting through the lives of nine remarkable women who helped shape Aotearoa’s early artistic and botanical story. Some were born here; many journeyed from far across the world, leaving behind families, homelands and certainties for a raw new colony they would learn to call home. In this unfamiliar landscape, these “lady painters” found solace, purpose and delight in their art—capturing the strange, beautiful flora of New Zealand while navigating years of discovery, hardship, war and community-building.

Drawing on diaries, letters and historical journals, Bee Dawson brings these women vividly to life, revealing a world where creativity offered both refuge and resilience. Her research became a literary and botanical treasure hunt, uncovering stories that begin soon after the signing of Te Tiriti o Waitangi and continue through decades of change.

Image Credit: Titoki, Sarah Featon, 1885. Te Papa collection (1992-0035-2277/84).

Join Wellington social and garden historian Bee Dawson as she shares insights from her latest book, Lady Painters, and reflects on the women whose brushes and botanising helped illuminate a young nation. Bee is the author of 23 books, including A History of Gardening in New Zealand, Otari, and The Plimmer Legacy, and has written for NZ Gardener for more than 30 years. When she’s not writing, she can be found tending her wind‑tossed garden perched high on a Wellington cliff.