May 29, 2025
The Lake Emma painting is evolving into a masterpiece of gorgeous colour and detail. At 1200 x 700mm the space in this new work is allowing me to incorporate some very intricate detail in the mountains, and will allow me to also paint the fine sun-lit tussocks in the foreground.
The colours in the new Lake Emma painting are an exquisite blend of rich red ochres underlaid by deep browns, bold oranges and blues. This colour palette is a complete contrast to recent Nelson Lakes works, and is keeping the outlook very fresh in the studio - moving between such contrasting works.

July 25, 2026
At a very early stage is Birdcage Hut, with the first heavy base layers laid down and the initial details emerging.
Situated towards the head of the Cass River near Lake Tekapo Birdcage Hut is nestled against the Haszard Ridge on the valley floor at just under 1100 metres above sea level.
This hut is a derelict one...
July 19, 2026
After this latest snow dump we feel so lucky to have spent time just before it immersing ourselves in the Molesworth. Access in winter can be a challenge, snow and ice on the passes and we just heard that the rivers in Rainbow got blown out after the last rain/snow storm I imagine these are impassable now as they get gauged out very quickly.
It's very cool to see others just as passionate about the area as us - when we turned up it made me laugh to see another ute had skis in the back (although they had biked in) nothing was going to stop them going in! It would have been a very long...
July 05, 2026
I'm getting into the finer detail now on the Poolburn Dam painting. The morning mist rising off the cool water as the sun warmed it was a challenge. It adds a great mood and is only visible for such a short time early in the morning so I really wanted to include this...