My paintings are about the garden as a metaphor for paradise, at the intersection between the natural world and spirit realm.

 

Imagery is drawn from childhood memories of the majesty and grandeur of South Island landscapes, a Celtic heritage celebrating journey as well as arrival, a fascination and travels within the Persian world, and dreams of heaven.

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Seemingly familiar objects of nature – a stream gushing from a rock, a tree, a refreshing waterfall, a brilliant sky, are intended points of encounter and “wonderment,” raising questions of connecting to the Devine, rather than objects of worship in themselves.

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My process is a carefully curated storybook – like assembled fragments of a collage, that overlap, butt together and intersect. Multiple chapters, paintings within paintings, like an illustrated manuscript—explore a theme and invite the participant to enter into the journey. The colours flow organically as do the shapes from one to the other. Walking the tightrope between the figurative and abstract, the symbolic shapes beckon exploration. Never in isolation, the rendered or flat bounded shapes connect through association. Whether by a precise curvilinear or straight-edged line or geometrical shape the journey invites a heart response.

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In the words of the poet from  the medieval poem, “The Phoenix”:

“That is a joyful place, the groves green and roomy beneath the heavens… that bright land is higher… there the blessed one may enjoy his homeland.”