"Garden Stroll" Painting

I am a large-scale abstract expressionist painter. Born and raised in New Zealand, I currently live in the South of France after 13 years of living in outer London. From 2001-2005 I studied fine art, design and art history at Massey University School of Design in Wellington, New Zealand, gaining an honours degree in Visual Communication Design. Through exhibitions in various locations around the world my works have been sold to clients in several counties including Spain, England, Dubai, Germany, France, Australia and New Zealand.

Described as unavoidably bold, my work has a real presence in any room due to the scale and the intensity of the colours. I produce most of my paintings in oil on canvas, in substantial proportions of up to 200cm wide. At this scale I can fully express my vision using broad, dynamic brushstrokes. Often plant life is recognisable in my works and sometimes I paint in a totally abstracted style. While gaining most of my inspiration from nature, I avoid focussing on the accurate representation of plant-life and instead focus on experimentations with colour and linework.

Compositionally I am interested in the tension and balance between beauty, distress, space and movement. As in life, the raw and rough faults are present as much as the moments of calm and joy. In each work there are a multitude of differing relationships happening between hue, texture and shape. Every part of the canvas is working to serve the composition as a whole, even the negative spaces are acting to create contrasting areas of calm. I use colour repetition strategically to pull the eye around the canvas and to create a sense of unity, in what can otherwise be seen as delightfully chaotic.