2017/18. What I Sea.

What I sea:

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Our lives are busy. It’s understandable that so many are wilfully blind to the state of our environment. It’s tempting to imagine everything will be fine and our landscapes will always be beautiful.

I look for locations where industry and waterways meet to capture a moment of beauty. Among the pipes there is a play of sunlight on the water, the colours of the sea shimmer from teal to purple.

Looking for the beauty through the bits of plastic is probably my wilful blindness, but it's like seeing someone who is bone tired smile. I want to share these at risk areas, as I see them - fragile, polluted and beautiful. It’s a reminder of how much we still have that's worth fighting for.

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The Paintings:

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In this series of oil on canvas paintings I am trying to capture the dynamism of a moment. I paint 'wet on wet', laying different colours against each other. Up close when I am painting, it's a swirl of colour, but take step back the image completes. I love that you are making it as much with your eye as I am with my brush. That’s what I want to pass on. You aren't passive, we're all in this together.

Outside every picture frame is another world close by, a bridge, a power plant that you can't quite see but you know is there. 

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The Names:

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Some of titles of this series relate to the local marine life and a household chemical that it shares its home with. Some describe an environmental issue. All the titles, hopefully, suggest that there is something more going on here than just sparkly water:)  That's about as much as i can tell you on that - they just pop up in a quiet moment while they are being painted, usually during a cup of tea.

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Kia whakapapa pounamu te moana

Kia tere karohirohi

I mua i tou hurarahi.

May the sea glisten as greenstone

May the shimmer of light

Ever dance across your pathway.

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