Kathleen Airini Vane

Airini, or Kitty, Vane was notable for her watercolours of mountain and seashore, the latter often centred on pohutukawa trees in flower. She signed her art work K Airini Vane.

Kathleen Airini Vane (nee Mair) [born Katherine Irene Mair] was a daughter of Captain Gilbert Mair, a Native Land Court Judge, and his wife Eleanor Kate (nee Sperry), herself an accomplished painter. Kathleen was born at Wainuiomata in New Zealand on 22 January 1891, and became known as Kitty. Her mother died when she was three and she was brought up by a Scottish nurse, Miss Henry. Brought up in Auckland she studied art under Educated in Auckland, Kitty studied art under Kenneth Watkins (1847-1933).

From the age of 21 Kitty studied in London at the Royal College of Art in London (1912).

At the beginning of August 1914 she was holidaying in the Bay of Biscay with a party of students and they may have been the first to see the affects of World War I. Kitty served as a nursing aide in France.

During those war years she met her husband, Hon Captain Ralph Vane (3rd son of Lord and Lady Barnard of Raby Castle), of the Durham Light Infantry. They married in London in 1917, and then travelled extensively. Kitty painted at every opportunity, exhibiting Academy in Paris in 1924, and in Malta.

After her husbands death in 1928 she travelled and painted in North Africa, Cyprus, Malta, Fiji and New Zealand.

During World War II Kitty revisited New Zealand and spent the war years here. During the war years she exhibited in New Zealand and Fiji, donating the proceeds from the sale of her works to the Red Cross and Navy League.

Kitty's great love was trees and in particular the Pohutakawa earnt her the title The Pohutakawa Lady'. She was passionately fond of pohutukawa trees and painted them often. I'm a fool" she said "to love them so much!" In order to preserve a fine group of them she bought land at Matapouri and gave it as a reserve.

In October 1936, Kitty persuaded Samuel Lamorna Birch and his wife Houghton to come to New Zealand to paint and give a lecture tour sponsored by the New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts. Kitty was to be their driver, painting companion and guide. In December 1936, Birch and Kitty painted in the Bay of Islands and Whangarei Harbour and it was on this Christmas trip to New Zealand’s most spectacular coastline that they both painted in the Mahurangi Heads.

Kitty returned to Europe and North Africa in 1949, where she worked for a further three years. On her return to New Zealand in 1952 she spent much of her retirement on the Tutukaka Matapouri coast. When the Going family of Tutukaka, at whose boarding house she used to stay, built a deep-sea fishing launch Hugh Going named it Kitty Vane in her honour.

Kitty was a regular exhibitor at the New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts and the Auckland Society of Art until the mid-1950s.

Later Kitty built a home at Langs Beach near Waipu in Northland and there she lived for the rest of her life. Wherever she was she always took a lively interest in the affairs of the community. Ever young at heart she was known as was her father before her as a person of extraordinary generosity.

Kitty Vane died on the 7th of February 1965 at Langs Beach.

Her works are held in numerous private and public collections, including the Tauranga Art Gallery. The Kitty Vane Reserve at Sandy Bay is named for her.