'Mowhanau', Watercolour on Paper, 1999.

'Mowhanau', Watercolour on Paper, 1999.

'Stream at Mowhanau Beach', Watercolour on Paper, 1999.

'Mowhanau', Watercolour on Paper, 1999.
For my last year of art school and the following year my work was based around a small beach and stream north of Whanganui, I was often letting the colours bleed into each other with interesting effects.

'Mowhanau Beach', Watercolour on Paper, 1998.

'Mouth of the Wanganui River', Watercolour on Paper, 1998.

'River Past Aramoho', Watercolour on Paper, 1998.

'View from the Steps, Wanganui', Watercolour on Paper, 1998.

'Wanganui from Roberts Road', Watercolour on Paper, 1998.

'Virginia Lake, Wanganui', Watercolour on Paper, 2000.

'Virginia Lake, Wanganui', Watercolour on Paper, 2000.

'Road past Okoia, Wanganui'. Oil on Board, 1999.
Old Wanganui piece from a bad slide.

'Wanganui River', Oil on Board, 1998.
Old art school picture from an old slide.

'Kaitoke Road Stop, Wanganui'. 1999.
An example of the looser style of painting from the Wanganui years, pieces like this would take me half an hour as opposed to the eight to ten they do now.

'Virginia Lake, Wanganui', 2001.
During the five years I spent in Wanganui, I took many trips up to Virginia Lake to draw and sketch, not the pretty birds and lake, but the dark sinster corners leading off into the trees. I enjoyed giving the shadows some colour and this led to a series based on obscure little streams in the bush around Wellington.

'Wanganui River View', 1998. Watercolour.
I have had times were I have been very fond of watercolour, mainly as a way of sorting out colour before starting a piece in oil. I have also produced many watercolours for the fun of it, the process being more relaxing and less taxing than oil painting. I have many old sketchbooks full of pictures like this but I haven't really indulged of late.

'Mowhanau', 1998, and 'Mowhanau', 1998.

Both of these pieces are from my final year at art school and both featured in my graduate show.

I spent a lot of time at Mowhanau beach during my last year of study and it became a recurring theme in my painting. As you can see the painting was quicker and looser and the palette was more muted from diluting my paints (with too much turps) to make them last. These photo are quite dark too.

'Wanganui River', 1998
This is one of the few pieces I have left from my last year of art school. This piece was originally much wider but when making the frame (from good old recycled river wood) I made a mistake so cut the piece to fit the frame. The view is from the path up Durie Hill where I used to live. I would walk past this spot and down the path to the river on my way to school whenever my car was out of action. I might put up a few more older pieces in the next few posts.