Latest Update – April 2012

New window/shop front and studio

Change (gulp) is a good thing.

After ten years in my studio next to Seatoun Surgery I have now moved into temporary premises until my new brighter and bigger studio is built (I should be in there in June).

Thanks to the kindness of Jilly at ‘The Best Little Bookshop’ in Seatoun, I now have a new window/studio front on the main road in Seatoun Village. My plan is to change my artwork every few weeks. Here’s how it currently looks:

New paintings

In between commissioned paintings I’ve been thinking about and creating a new body of work.

My new collection reveals what home means to me and questions my closely held belief in the idealised ‘Quarter Acre Dream’. I come from a family of builders and proud DIY-ers. I was taught that you could never go wrong in owning your own home, and of course, developing and maintaining it yourself. Now that we have a teenager of our own I’m coming to the conclusion that a mortgage and DIY skills are becoming extinct and changing with the next generation. I have a sinking feeling that the idealised Quarter Acre Dream is becoming yet another cultural myth.

So here are a couple of the new paintings hot off the easel:

‘The Perfect Lawn’ - Oil paints on 1000 mm wooden round

‘The Quarter-Acre Dream Story’ - Oil paints on 1000 mm wooden round

(the story is based on my parents words of wisdom embedded in me as I grew).

Next Exhibition (November 2012)

We have again gratefully confirmed our sponsorship with RICOH Image Communication this year for our November exhibition. I am working on pulling the details of this together in the next month so will keep my website updated on its progress.

Artist Residence at Samuel Marsden Collegiate

I completed my residency at Samuel Marsden Collegiate in June/August 2011 as their Artist in Residence. This resulted in a successful solo exhibition at the sponsor’s showroom, Wellington Star - Mercedes Benz on Friday 19th August 2011.