Mother Land is a body of work born from layers of memory, land and light.
Raised in Ōtepoti Dunedin, my connection to the landscapes of the South Island was formed early. Summers were spent inland in Central Otago, surrounded by dry hills, wide skies and mountains washed in extraordinary light. Winters brought snow and time spent in those same ranges — landscapes that, even now, carry a deep sense of home.
These paintings are not intended to depict particular places exactly. Instead, they draw upon what remains after a place has become a memory: the shape of a range, light moving across a hillside, mist gathering between mountains, the darkness of water, the colours of stone and earth.
There is something about these landscapes that has stayed with me. I return to them instinctively in my work, sometimes clearly and sometimes almost unconsciously.
Mother Land is my exploration of that connection — of whenua, memory and belonging, and of the landscapes we carry with us long after we have left them.
It is less about painting a place as it looks, and more about painting how it feels to remember it.
