In 2006 we lived in Wellington, high above the harbour looking East over some magnificent mountains and foothills. Cleared of native vegetation by settlers in the 1840s, these hills have never recovered their former glory. The survivors of the Wahine tragedy were washed up on the beaches at the foot of the hills. Here is a photograph of the same range, from which I drew inspiration for this more abstract painting.
This is where I got started with painting while living in Minneapolis. I was very lucky to have the lovely Clea Felien as a tutor at her Minneapolis Studio School. Clea teaches classic realism in the atalier tradition. It was an excellent discipline to learn as it taught me how to really observe and then gave me a framework to translate what I saw to the canvas.
