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...
After recently travelling through the breathtaking Arthurs pass I was quite surprised to suddenly leave the 40cm of fresh snow blanketing the landscape as we dropped down the Otira Gorge to a flooded countryside. The peaks held little snow, waterfalls cascaded down bluffs and the Otira River spread across the riverbed with a very strong flow (not something I’d attempt to cross). This brought back memories of a contrasting time during summer with my friend Dulkara...
As our visit south drew to an end and with snow forecast we decided to stay in Arthurs Pass on the way home and see what the area looked like coated in white. After a wait we were greeted with fat, wet, heavy snowflakes which made it feel like a winter wonderland and got everyone very excited (us being from the warm tropics of Nelson)...
Here is my latest painting "Lady Emily at the Cass" progressing nicely, showing recent detail work going into the mountains. Lady Emily Hut is found upon the mountainside inthe Cass Valley inthe Glenmore Stationon the western side of LakeTekapo and has been purpose built forski touring and hunters. Itis a wonderful placetoexplore, with gentle basins...
Cooks Beach (Pukaki) is a sheltered white sandy beach withPōhutukawa trees and “bunny tail” sand tussocks waving gently in the breeze. The three-kilometre long beach is on the east coast of the Coromandel Peninsula of New Zealand and is protected from the open ocean so does not get the big surf found on other beaches along the coastline. This makes Cooks Beach a...
The views from Sefton Bivouac, the oldest hut in the Aoraki/Mt Cook National Park are spectacular. The bivvy is perched on a ledge with panoramic views down the Hooker Valley and across to the Sealy Range with the cold crumbing ice cliffs of Te Waewae Glacier sitting right behind. The main shadowed range in this painting is the majestic Kirikirikatata/Mt Cook Range that...
