Contemporary Artist Philip Maxwell

Family donates painting to commemorate physician’s 90th birthday

A small group of family and friends gathered at the Clinical Education Centre at Auckland City Hospital on 4 April 2006 to celebrate the birthday of Dr Laurie Reynolds, a physician and cardiologist at Green Lane Hospital from 1950 - 1978.
Dr Reynolds was instrumental in setting up the first Coronary Care Unit at Green Lane Hospital, and later the first Coronary Rehabilitation Programme in Auckland

The occasion also marked the family’s donation of the Philip Maxwell painting ‘Kauri tree at Back Beach’ to the CEC, to commemorate Dr Reynolds’ 90th birthday the previous year and honour his contribution and dedication to medicine.Dr Laurie Reynolds was joined by several of his Green Lane colleagues at the event, including Sid Yarrow, Warren Smith, Henry Stone, Robin Norris and Nigel Bass.

The painting was selected by the Reynolds’ children Stephanie Markson, Roger Reynolds, Linda Skala and Alison Dyson. A Jewish family, the children were guided by the Jewish principle ‘tikkun olam’, literally ‘the repair of the world’, which means that we are all responsible for making the world a better place by our deeds.

“Beautifying and adding interest to the intellectual and professional environment of the hospital seemed a very suitable way of honouring our father on his 90th birthday,” said Roger Reynolds at the dedication of the painting.

The painting, which features Back Beach in the Otago Harbour, was created by artist Philip Maxwell, an Artist currently residing in Port Chalmers.
The family see the young transplanted Kauri as a metaphor for the generations of Aucklanders who went to Otago to be nurtured in their chosen crafts and then returned to grow in stature and wisdom in their native soil.

The three chairs in the painting are about conversation and reflection, says Roger Reynolds, and it is the family’s hope that the painting will inspire conversation and reflection amongst those who in years to come will assemble at the Green Lane Room at the Clinical Education Centre.