While his sons remember Drawbridge spending a lot of time drawing, they found very few of his drawings amongst their father’s collection. The drawings shown above are the last remaining works still available for sale from the estate collection. They include a 1949 life study (titled ‘Carrington’), which is believed to have been completed while Drawbridge was visiting fellow artist, Theo Schoon (who was working as an orderly at Carrington hospital at the time).
John was a brilliant and diverse visual artist. He began his career as a textile designer, and in a career spanning over fifty years he created a challenging, exciting and varied body of work. Oil and watercolour painter, printmaker, muralist and stained glass artist, he possessed the mind and soul of an artist and the hands of a craftsman.
One of New Zealand’s leading and most accomplished artists, he was awarded an MBE in 1978. John’s work is held in some of the world’s most celebrated collections, amongst them the British Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, and in New Zealand in institutions such as Te Papa Tongarewa (Museum of New Zealand), the Auckland City Art Gallery and the Christchurch Public Art Gallery.
His public works in New Zealand include the 40m long Beehive mural in the Banquet Hall, Parliament; the Expo ‘70 mural for Osaka, Japan; the New Zealand House, London, mural; and the stained glass windows, including the Stations of the Cross in the Home of Compassion Chapel, Island Bay, Wellington.