Fergus Colinson (1948-2018) was a painter, poet, photographer and recognisable figure in Wellington. He was purely himself: an artist, gay, Christian, tall, lean and in later years, wore a tea cosy hat with half a moustache, dyed pink. Although he was sometimes lonely, he was driven by a joy of jazz music and life in general and had many close friends and supporters.

Born in a small town in South Otago, Fergus went deaf at age three in an act of violence by a family member. While studying via correspondence school he gained a passion for art and eventually moved to Wellington in 1974. Fergus worked at Alexander Turnbull Library's Art Room, communicating through lip-reading and laughter. He studied Sociology, History and English at Victoria University, not letting his deafness hold him back by reading his neighbours notes. He lived much of his adult life in a typical old Newtown villa. By the time of his death, it was full to the brim with paintings, sketchbooks and stacks of shoe boxes filled with his photographs. His personal blog site fergus-art.space has been kept public and is a trove of Fergus’ inner thoughts, demons, cherished moments, art reviews, poetry and some very deep and telling personal stories.

He was a self-styled ‘primal native jazz painter’. For Fergus, painting and photographing was a performative practice. Fergus was compelled by 'mood, and how to paint it'. He used colours to emphasise atmosphere, and although his painting style is loose and immediate, he had a sharp eye for picking out details. Fergus wrote stories for children as well as poetry. In 1983 he illustrated Elizabeth Smither's book Tugboat Brother. The Wellington Central Library commissioned Fergus to produce three large painted canvases for curtains to surround the children’s storytelling area. He quilted together paintings by local school children with the assistance of the Art in Schools coordinator.

This painting, ‘Moonlight in Vermont/All my family died of starvation’ was offered to the City Art Collection by a friend of Fergus in 2020. It shows the artist and a friend in the kitchen of a commune they temporarily lived at in the Wairarapa, along with a beautifully textured tea cosy and view of the dry summer fields outside.