As the season cools and the leaves start to tinge to hues of golds and burnt orange I have been working on the Lake Alexandrina painting. This artwork has the same vibrant autumn colours pressing against...
Three sizes available to fit your space perfectly - Summer Afternoon at Cooks Beach, Coromandel Peninsula, New Zealand. Pictured are the black and white 30w x 40d frames with not matt and in the 1000 x 625 size. Cooks Beach (Pukaki) is a sheltered white sandy beach with Pōhutukawa trees and “bunny tail” sand tussocks waving gently in the breeze...
Here is a new painting in progress (early stages) that is inspired by the Brook Waimārama Sanctuary and features the Little Spotted Kiwi/Kiwi pukupuku. I have spent much time in this nearly 700 hectare "ecological island” located just up the road from my studio, even before it became a sanctuary. The Waimārama sanctuary is...
Following on from the chilly evening in the snow last weekend, the sun came out for a few beautiful, hot days of climbing up and down scree slopes.
We had a spectacular base camp by a magical and very deep tarn with only 5 lost seagulls for company that intermittently squawked throughout the nights, and...
I am excited to finally announce that Lady Emily in the Cass is now available as a limited edition art print!
If you are wondering where Lady Emily Hut is, the hut is situated on a gentle ridge overlooking the Cass Valley in the Glenmore Station near Lake Tekapo. With the impressive Liebig Range (peaks towering to over 2800) hidden behind the Gamack Range surrounding the hut it is a pretty impressive...
With warm tones of late autumn this scene depicts a derelict farmhouse that was full of history. The farmhouse, which stood in the shade of four walnut trees, had sat on the site for over a century was part of the Chesterhope Station. It was later home to the Hori family, which started as a lonely existence, but grew to be a place of many beautiful memories. Unfortunately the sheep that grazed...
Happy New Year everyone! I hope you are excited for what 2024 may bring and are planning lots of exciting adventures!
For those of you who don’t know I’m an artist who loves spending time outdoors and soaking up the natural environment. Over the past 2 years I have been working on a painting of Lady Emily Hut in the Cass in...
While working with some shadow blues in the background details I was thinking about the different tones of blues I used in 'Morning Birdsong at Breaker Bay'. The range of blue was huge in this artwork, I think I used every shade of blue that I had and mixed many more. I don't just use blue in the water and sky it's also used to knock back yellows and reds, create...
So Mum who has been my biggest critique since I started painting as a teenager popped around last week. After much deliberating she pointed out the fact that the foreground in Lady Emily at the Cass was looking a bit uninteresting, something that I’d been struggling with for the past weeks, while working
Mt Misery at the southern end of Lake Rotoroa in the Nelson Lakes National Park has been on the to do list for quite sometime. Being a short but steep climb to get to Mt Misery Hut we thought that it would be great trip for the kids 6 and 8, although some misery was anticipated on the uphill. With an elevation gain of about 1100m, and the with the added weight of the kids gear to lug up as well it was going to be a slow but steady trip, however the luxury of a cosy little hut above bush line was very inviting.
For those of you that have done the Te Araroa Trail, biked, hunted or backcountry skied near Camp Stream in the Te Kahui Kaupeka Conservation Park near Lake Tekapo you will recognise the very iconic Camp Stream Hut. Now this one is pretty cool, built in 1898 it was an old musterers hut back in the day, burnt down and was re-built with iron from the original hut. Now it is lovingly...
Having previously visited Camp Stream Hut in the Te Kahui Kaupeka Conservation Park in Autumn after a long warm summer just ending, I was keen to pop up and over and check the area out in a cooler climate. Round Hill had just closed for season, the rivers were high with snowmelt and there were still patches of snow hugging the hollows on the hills so the area looked quite different. The ski-field road was an unrelenting grind made easier by biking up, I love riding along the plateau and taking in the wonderful surrounding views, especially as the last light leaves. Also there’s nothing quite as good...
