In the Christmas/New Year period of 2004-2005, my family and I visited the South Island of New Zealand. I took my paints and camera with me and between the plein-air work I did there and studio work back in Australia, I created a series of oil paintings. Along with each work, I wrote a short blog entry about the events surrounding it. After more than a decade I thought it would be nice to republish these for a new audience.
The first painting from my Xmas 2004 trip to New Zealand. On the south coast of the south island of New Zealand sits Dunedin surrounded by ocean and stunning countryside. This particular day was wild with the wind howling in from the south, dark tortured clouds tore across the sky and the ocean pounded relentlessly against the beaches and rocky headlands of the Otago Peninsula.
This sea-scape was commenced under difficult conditions in Dunedin and completed later back in the relative calm of my Perth studio. I tried to keep the same quick and free sketch-like quality of my original paint layers in the finished result. This is the first New Zealand painting from the series of works that I brought back with me.
Click image for larger view
Oil on Canvas Panel 16″x 12″.
(Originally published on ArtWanted, 2005)