My memories of growing up are of spending hours and hours outside - playing, exploring, finding, collecting.
We spent long summers and many weekends at our family “Camp” in a remote clearing in a Beech Forest near Waikaia, in Southland.
The forest, bush and the creek were our natural playground.
We entertained ourselves with adventures in with simple things – we encountered nature in a kiwi way - it was elemental.
This series lays out the elements of the southern New Zealand forest and bushland.
I want to capture in these works the majesty and delight of objects and textures that intrigued and molded me when I discovered them when I was younger – simple but strong influences that have stayed with me in life.
As a child I was fascinated with the patterns created above ground with leaf forms, trees branching and rivers braiding. Anastomosis.
I want to reflect and celebrate the beauty of a fluttering or poised butterfly; the playfulness of a falling sycamore “helicopter” seed; making daisy chains, hours spent sitting on the grass making them and wearing them on our heads.....with several siblings, there was always an element of competition, who could make the longest one; finding a four leaf clover, we used to spend hours looking for them and were convinced that we would be incredibly lucky if we did....I can't remember now if we ever found one.; the intimacy of a Ladybird landing on you bringing you good luck; the comedy of an acorn with its hat on; the part fear and part joyful intrigue of a buzzy Bee searching you out; the Dragonflies drifting around a pond; the beauty of Kowhai and of ferns unfurling: the friendly Robin. The buttercup, holding them up to the chin like they were magic, predicting whether you liked butter or not! Experiences to cherish, even if harder to find these days as grown ups!
These artworks are a collection of thoughts and experiences. The images are not botanically correct but painted as the memory sees them. The scale is not accurate. There is a thought for the grouping of plants together, father, mother, protector, smaller plants below. The idea of making my own little world, as we did as children.
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