News

My solo exhibition ‘Indefinite’ opens at Pataka Art + Museum, Porirua on December 18th 2020 and continues until January 31st 2021.

I’m exhibiting at Artbourne this week, raising money for the Wellesley College scholarship fund and for visual arts at Wellesley. Come and check out a great range of artists’ works. Buy art and support a good cause!

I’ve been selected as a finalist in the NZ Painting and Printmaking Awards 2020, from a record number of entries.

I’ve had a painting accepted into the 2020 Aspiring Art Awards. I figured this was a great way to get my work seen in the South Island - it’s the first time I’ve exhibited in the South Island, so hopefully it will help introduce my work to a new audience. Plus, all sales benefit the Holy Family School in Wanaka.

This year's show has almost 100 artworks to choose from, all priced below $500 - I have three new paintings in this exhibition.

I now have greeting cards available with images of my paintings (and in some cases ‘parts’ of my paintings) on the front.

Recently I used the Artivive app to add a new dimension to some of the artworks in my solo exhibition ‘Equivocal’ at Muse Art Gallery in Havelock North. The app allows you to bring your paintings to life using animation and sound. This is my first time exploring what I can do with it. You can see the videos I made here.

On now - and extended until August 10th . . .

Muse Art Gallery, Havelock North, Hawke’s Bay, NZ

Some of my work can now be seen (and purchased) in the UK, at Gallery 57 in Arundel. I have a series of small shaped paintings / wall sculptures in their current exhibition.

I’ve been asked a few times recently why I switched to being an artist, so here’s a not-very-brief answer to that question!

This was originally written as an email to my mailing list people - I’m posting it here because someone else might find it interesting too - and I’d like some more opinions about what to call these artworks!

How my monochrome shadows paintings came about - it was almost by accident - and the process I use to design and produce them.

My very first memory of becoming really excited by art was when, as a young child, I was allowed to play with a pair of expensive Vasarely art books with accompanying printed transparencies, that could be overlayed and shifted to create crazy optical effects.  I had to be really careful with them, they were very expensive and very precious to my parents - and they were probably two of the most fascinating books on the floor-to-ceiling shelves in our house crammed with architecture and art volumes.

I've just read a great article on collecting art - even on a budget - art that YOU like, art that means something to you, not the type of art that is 'trendy' right now. It talks about how much more joy you can get from an art collection when you know the artist, or when the pieces have some emotional meaning to you. And about how an art collection can grow over the years, and morph and change as your budget and taste changes, but how this creates a rich, personal collection that really represents you and your own style and personality.

Last weekend we went to ...

I’ve just completed a small number of little shaped paintings, mostly on aluminium, and one on mdf. I have plans to create a whole series of these,  but I started with these five as an initial experiment, and so I could try techniques out and refine the process. I learned quite a few tricks along the way, including a lot about fugitive colours.

Sometimes the inspiration for my paintings comes from models I have made and photographed in different lighting conditions. Other times I am inspired by places I’ve been, things I’ve experienced or just how a place makes me feel. 

Colour can evoke emotions and memories, and that is what I tried to capture with these paintings.