News

A lot of time has been spent on the Molesworth painting so far. It's one of ones that has so many different aspects that you work one part then get distracted and work another and just can't seem to put the brush down. Each different aspect of this painting complements the other and there are some nice contrasts in texture and detail not to mention the beautiful colour palette...

Having not yet visited the Lake Coleridge area, we decided to have a look around on our way south. We arrived at Harper Campsite after driving for a few hours in the dark with only the faint silhouette of big beautiful snow topped mountain ranges towering ahead of us not knowing what to expect. In the morning the sun slowly rose around the peaks and as it warmed up we set off on our bikes up the big wide Wilberforce River...

Despite the hut being so comfy and hard to leave, there's much to explore and soak in at the Mt Potts skifield area. The Rangitata river fans out below you to the south with the Two Thumb & Ben Mcleod Range - lit up beautifully at both dawn and dusk.
Further up the basin there is a tarn nestled...

In spring 2023 with icy howling winds blasting snow into every part of me and surrounded by bleak walls of dismal grey rock and not much else I stopped at 1300m near a swampy tarn and made the decision to turn around and leave the empty mountains. Thoughts in my head were along the lines of I'm not coming back here, and what an average place (in worse terms). 
Due to extreme nosiness and the seemingly only apparent easy access to the peaks in the area I had decided to go up the Mt Potts

A sneak peek at the very early stages of the Molesworth painting. After laying down a lot of the various layers of base colours, I've decided this scene needs a another layer of rich textured tones to capture both the warm last light reds and golds and also the contrasting cool blues...

At 800 x 500mm this artwork has just the right amount of space to include all those interesting limestone karst formations on and around Mt Owen. I've also been layering up the shaded tussocks with blues, umbers and ochres...

This year I am further exploring the Molesworth Station and St James area while I work on a collection of new paintings featuring the area. I've just returned from visiting another beautiful area in the Molesworth which reminded me how brutal it can be. So exposed with only Matagouri, rocks...

Do you where Middle Gorge Hut is? I didn't before I saw it nestled in the mountains between the Cass and the Godley (near Lake Tekapo) on a topomap. At about 1240m and with big mountains towering...

On a recent adventure to explore a little bit more of the Arthurs Pass area with the kids we did a couple of short walks to get a feel for the area. Early in the morning we started with Carroll Hut, and with the morning cloud lifting this was a lovely cool walk with great views towards Arthurs Pass and some very...

After climbing to over 1700 meters past the Parachute Rocks, which gained their name from a parachute-shaped gravel scree slope to the north you will see a collection of mountain tarns below you from the ridgeline towards the east. This particular tarn is the furtherest to the south in the basin below feeding into Merry Stream, pictured here catching the early morning light with the Raglan Range beyond. Both the broadest and tiniest details are captured here...

The kids had an epic girly (7 girls) sleepover planned up Mt Robert at Bushline Hut. The weather was lovely and they were having a great time, bouncing around the hut like baby elephants, playing manhunt in the tussocks and I was in bed by the time spotlight started.
The next morning I rose before dawn and departed from the hut watching the light change as I walked in the cool morning air along the ridge to Lake Angelus. From there I headed around the bottom of the Hinapouri Tarn, past...