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All  Artworks

Displayed here are artworks fresh from the studio and going back many years. As a new work is completed, it's added (see new work via the filter: New Artworks).

These original oil paintings depict islands in the Pacific Ocean as well as surround seas in a whimsical surreal environment that allows the viewer entry into an alternative narrative of our lived experience.

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My initial works depicted portraits of masculinity with the faces of the subject obscured so that their identity could only be gained by their surroundings and posture. They were attempts to characterise the New Zealand male temperament, or perhaps simply my own.

Calloused Veneer

Exhibited: Calloused Veneer, 91 x 91 cm, oil on board, 2004, sold

An island artwork with my favourite native tree - the Nīkau, I couldn’t resist adding them to this island sanctuary - I am also enamoured by these tiny caravans of old and have portrayed them in several paintings: Freedom Camper and Sitting Pretty just a bit of NZ quirkiness.

Caravan

Exhibited: Archipelago, 61 x 79 cm, oil on board, 2017, sold

This was inspired by some research around islands in the seas to the south of New Zealand. In the late 19th century the NZ government established depots on Auckland, Campbell, Antipodes and Bounty Islands, the islands had emergency supplies and a small station added to them to aid ship-wrecked sailors until they might be found by another passing vessel.

Castaway Depot

Exhibited: Land's End, 90 x 85 cm, oil on canvas, 2018, sold

The forest imagined as a world unto itself, within are predators and prey with cats, a mouse and ferret as well as the native population of birds

Cat and Mouse

Exhibited: T.E.N.T, 112 x 112 cm, oil on canvas, 2021

The practice of enjoying the thrill of catching the fish and then, once the excitement of the chase has been won, releasing it again to live another day

Catch & Release

91 x 91 cm, oil on linen, 2011, commission

From a memory a fun work - when there is a crowded beach but no changing rooms, the mother in looking away and giving privacy to their child, reveals the object of embarrassment

The Changing Room

Exhibited: Stone's Throw, 106 x 76 cm, oil on linen, 2005, sold

From the “Battlelines series” my support of highlighting predator free NZ. A battle line separates - the native Hawk, Kakapo, Tuatara and Fantail from the invaders the Possum, Rabbit, Weasel and Rat. Based upon the Marvel movie poster of the same name, I enjoyed the associations of learning to live together - even if we are from different worlds.

Civil War

Exhibited: PAPER, 70x 100 cm, oil and acrylic on watercolour paper, 2018, sold

The word 'clue' is derived from the word clew and came from the Greek story where the hero Theseus lay a thread behind himself in the Labyrinth, so he could make his way out again. He hunted the Minotaur monster of Crete which had the body of a man and the head of a bull. I was taken by an imagined scenario: What if the Minotaur came across this thread in the caves? Following it one way leads out of the Labyrinth - the other to his death at the hands of Theseus - If he can discover the meaning of this simple thread he could decide his own fate.

Clew

Exhibited: The Popup Show, 91 x 91 cm, oil on canvas, 2013, sold

Perched upon a New Zealand classic villa are a Kereru, Waxeye, Tui and Fantail. A homage to popular New Zealand birds and, like the Musicians of Bremen, each rests upon the back of the larger one below. View ‘Post’ and ‘Broken Rock’ which have the same painting style and theme.

Colonial Villa

Exhibition: For the Birds, 80 x 80cm, Oil on Panel, 2019, sold

Playful design utilizing Gordon Walters Koru motifs but with cattle.

Cow Koru

Exhibited: Human Presence, 80 x 55cm, oil on board, 2003, sold

A small, very early painting illustrating a time in my life when I was at a low ebb. The painting depicts being lost, drowning and in need of help - all the while going about the daily chores. This painting won 1st place (acquisitive) award and I have never seen it since.

Death on the Farm

Exhibited: Waitakere Art awards , oil on canvas, 1998, 1st prize (acquisitive)

What's in the truck, an early attempt to create a narrative with little information presented

The Delivery

?, ?, 2003, sold

On the man's right forearm is a tattoo of a phoenix, which is a symbol for rebirth or renewal (as well as the cyclical nature of life). This suntanned man is at the beach or farm and has removed his shirt revealing skin untouched by the burn of the sun. An early work - perhaps an artist baring himself to his audience in one of his first shows?

Debut 2

Exhibited: Human Presence, 84 x 84 cm, oil on canvas, 2003, sold

The life of a rural farm working dog. View ‘Dog Tucker’ and ‘The Lair’ for farm dog art

Dog Box

86 x 86 cm, oil on canvas, 2011, sold

From my farm series - the cropping of the work - removing the top half of the man, repositions the focus of the artwork to the relationship between the animals. The prey is safe from the predator for now but the painting title hints at its possible future. See “The Selection’ and ‘The chosen one’ for more with this trait.

Dog Tucker

122 x 47 cm, oil on canvas, 2007, sold

This painting depicts an island as a metaphor for the mind - we would all love to own our own island; to be king of our own domain, but to be stranded in solitude upon a deserted isle is a castaway - I enjoy this concept for it's polar duality. The pencil drawing of a house is what could be, your dreams or ambitions - a building that you yourself must construct. Buy a Limited Edition print (25)

Dream Home

Exhibited: Semi-colon, 80 x 80 cm, pencil and oil on panel, 2020, sold

In an effort to paint a portrait, not of a singular likeness of a person, but of a population. The figure observes while shaded from the stark sunlight, a worn exterior holds hidden depths within and a mysterious window showing an obscured further view that can't be seen without passing the individual at the doorway.

Drying Room (the)

Exhibited: Stone's Throw, 137 x 107 cm, oil on canvas, 2005, sold

A small island at the end of the day the light outside fades to be replaced by the light inside - a beacon for the coming night to guide the day's adventurers home

Dusk Light

84 x 84 cm, oil on canvas, 2019, sold

A beach artwork at the sea's edge with a crab making the most of the spilled Kete and a shellfish bounty. On the wet sand behind a shadow is cast from another hungry predator, flying high above.

Ebb Tide

Exhibited: Interior Landscape, oil on canvas, 2006, sold

An Island artwork - companion piece to Amorphous, viewed together they form an ambiguous union - which came first; either this one; the newly constructed villa surrounded by a pristine lake, or the abandoned house, left for nature to claim.

Echo

Exhibited: Island Nation, 99 x 99 cm, oil on canvas, 2020, sold

The grace and flo of moving sheep from one space to the next.

Ed and Flo

130 x 42 cm, oil on board, 2005, sold

This is a homage to the Far North, the lighthouse is situated at Cape Reinga - at the very top of the North Island. New Zealand stands at the edge of the explored world, one of the last discoveries by early explorers, here we are a beacon on the map with a signpost of more important places far far away. A painting of whimsy, with a kite playing on the breeze waiting for someone to come.

Edge of the World (the)

Exhibited: Archipelago, 79 x 79 cm, oil on board, 2017, sold

A painting exploring an early experience where I was asked to shoot a possum to cull the overpopulation at a local farm. The experience of killing takes the life of the animal killed as well as loss of innocence for the person that pulls the trigger.

End of Innocence (the)

91 x 120 cm, oil on canvas, 2015, sold

Many works attempt, with content of typical everyday scenes, to become metaphors for the wider experience of living. The heads of the sheep become one with the white background, their minds becoming lost in the heavens.. while their feet are planted firmly in the reality of close proximity and each others excrement

Enlightenment

91 x 86 cm, oil on canvas, 2011, sold

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