New Works

This body of work is called the 'Nature Identical' series. This curious phrase is a term used in the food industry to describe artificial flavours that supposedly exactly replicate the compounds of natural substances. My nature is the quiet, slightly untidy pockets of the outdoors that are found throughout our cities and beside our highways. I use photography and photoshop in my work development, not to replicate what I think I see, but to enhance what I don't see. In this way my aim is to make my paintings more identical to nature and at the same time acknowledge the process of making.

New Zealand is well practiced and enthusiastic about exploiting its natural beauty for commercial gain. Our scenery draws tourists in their thousands and images of our mountains, forests and beaches are replicated in a myriad of holiday snaps, along with a plentiful supply of more artistic efforts as imagery is turned into paint on canvas and art photography. And through a self-referential process, it is the scenic and the picturesque that often govern New Zealanders' own attitudes to the land, defining part of our sense of identity and providing a comforting reassurance that we are what we say we are – 100% pure.

But there is more to preserving our land than ensuring the tourist vistas remain pristine. My interest is in place in a general sense. By focusing on non-places, those places that are normally over-looked and therefore perceived as valueless, I aim to investigate what we do with all our land, not just the pockets of spectacle amongst the paddocks and the houses.