Paintings from the exhibition, Carrying On at Chambers Gallery, February-March 2025

Carrying on with the figure in the landscape makes perfect sense to me, since that is how I see myself. So far, painting for me has been about the best of the external world. This is how I celebrate the shapes and colours that give me so much pleasure while I’m out walking and tramping. In these paintings the figure is mostly implied- it’s me, the one who is there, feeling it, smelling it, looking and drawing, and later, painting. My partner Llew broke down some old furniture for the wood, and I’ve been working on the sides of drawers over the last few years, in between other aspects of my practice. Hence the oak.

Painting for me is immersive, and it takes a lot of time and space to get the flow going. That is why I developed my harakeke sculpture/ installation/ printmaking practice, so that I could still meaningfully create while also teaching. This process-based work was so much easier to pick up and put down. It led me into this form of printmaking / picture making, which has continued long after the teaching ended.