ngati pakeha inks

Boosh! like a bullet; that short powerful sound of a gannet hitting the water beside my boat always made me wonder at one of my favourite birds looking for a fishy treat. 
From a distance I wonder and watch the busy dog fight of a squadron of them looking for position to launch their dive, using angle against sun to track flashes of silver, often well below the surface.
They hit the water like machine gun fire sometimes... then the yellow heads popping up with such buoyancy, fish or not as they all work, energized in the moment, the abundance and the sheer excitement of life.
Wonderful.. also the elegance of that beautiful long winged frame gliding purposefully through the air. These fantastic coastal buddies, sharing the beauty of our sea, what great companions they are... Boosh! another one cuts the surface behind my now speeding sailboat, I turn up into the wind and wait, it is gone, just bubbles. Twenty seconds later and up that yellow head pops again, bright eyes, fish in mouth.. I drop the bow and sail on.

All works printed by the artist on Epson Velvet Fine Art Paper and K3 Archival Inks.

Available Framed and Unframed in sizes A4, A3,A2 and A1.  Please enquire for wait time for Framed

 When I was about six years old the Tretchikoff print "Chinese Girl" now so ubiquitous arrived on the living room wall of my family home. That same work resides on my living room wall still. "Poll Tax" came out of my studio over five years ago. It is a direct conversation about the surcharge on Chinese immigrants based solely on their race. Many Asian New Zealand families have identified strongly with the historical reference and update of character in the portrait. This new incarnation of the famous, now Kiwiana icon "Chinese Girl" or Blue Lady as many call her is a move further forward into the "Third Space" commentary of my work. Third space being where cultures meet, meld and unify as a blended outcome. We are entering a new stylistic phase with so many Asian influences and I feel it is pertinent to play these out, to relish and enjoy them. Pop culture becomes our fabric and "Blue Lady" is an example of where my art is headed, pop art statements of Aotearoa, New Zealand.

All works printed by the artist on Epson Velvet Fine Art Paper and K3 Archival Inks.

Available Framed and Unframed in sizes A4, A3,A2 and A1.  Please enquire for wait time for Framed

This artwork is a purposeful aside from the Maori/Pakeha contact based ideas my work usually encompasses. It celebrates the Polynesian connection and the myriad of black line, sea and sky based images that have inhabited the New Zealand pop art scene for decades. "Ghost Who Surfs" carries on the tradition of Phantom styles but as usual with my work sheets him back specifically to New Zealand. On this occasion it is in deference to the Taranaki surfers, who I know a few of and their huge love of the sea and mountain. They are so passionate and so consumed by the visceral connection, the excitement bubbles from them as they talk about that place and those waves. I am hoping it is at once, amusing and uplifting and a reminder of how blessed we are to live out our lives in a paradise that most people in the World cannot dream of. Even the Phantom has dropped his gun belt and kick off his boots.

All works printed by the artist on Epson Velvet Fine Art Paper and K3 Archival Inks.

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"Everyone loves a parrot, very clever, a character, naughty, the delightful scalawag. Ettrick, Dumbarton, Bannockburn, all names from the stories my father told of his very austere childhood in depression era Otago. Da got his first pair of shoes and first full time job at twelve years of age working on Aoraki Mount Cook. He walked 4 gallon cans of kerosine to the top hut for the climbers. He said the Keas were great characters, if not loved by all and remembered them having great fun on the tin roofs, sliding down them with great noise, crashing off the edge to the snowy ground below. Seen a Kea's jaunty gate and you just know... leave nothing to chance because they will have it, eat it, destroy it, play with it, kill it. This is my ho New Zealand's, the World's only mountain parrot, the devilishly wonderful Kea. I am naming him Sydney after my dad who rode a motorbike like there was no tomorrow, just like a Kea would."

All works printed by the artist on Epson Velvet Fine Art Paper and K3 Archival Inks.

Available Framed and Unframed in sizes A4, A3.A2 and A1.  Please enquire for wait time for Framed

Captain James Cook of Her Majesty's Ship, Endeavour must be in anyone’s eyes a great explorer and recorder of the World and in this regard has marked similarities with Captain James Kirk of the Star Ship Enterprise in that the initiative was to “explore the unknown”. Cook is one of my top historical characters and if I was inviting dead guests to a dinner, he would most certainly be there. I sometimes imagine what the conversation might sound like between he and David Attenborough Surely these would be two men who have seen more of the social and natural World than almost any others?! Another implication of this image is that Cook might have been changed in some ways by his meetings with Maori and that he might, given his comments about Maori/Polynesian sea-faring not have thought he was in an ocean "where no man had gone before". On making the comment to a Maori friend that if Cook was to be seen as the Star Trek’s Captain Kirk, Maori might be seen as Klingons he quickly corrected me and said "No, man, we are the bloody Vulcans!"

All works printed by the artist on Epson Velvet Fine Art Paper and K3 Archival Inks.

Available Framed and Unframed in sizes A4, A3.A2 and A1.  Please enquire for wait time for Framed

Hello Friend, "NI HAO E HOA" As a child I was taken to the bronze statue of Pania on the Napier foreshore by my parents and we all looked in awe at the wonderful balance, poise and pin up style of Pania of the Reef... She was immediately captivating. There was a pride in the fact this traditional bronze style was portraying a uniquely New Zealand myth. She immediately took a place in my heart. Many reinterpretations have been created, from perfect candles to imperfect resin sculptures and so many printed stylizations. This is mine, celebrating her, the mythology of our country and speaking to the changing face of our citizenry. As always I look for similarities that tie us together rather the differences that push us apart. With this image I look back to the fifties and forward into a time where our differences sit more easily on our shoulders. She is like that, Pania, a healer, like the ubiquitous Tiki, esoteric, romantic imagery that transcends differences creating a deep inner connection we all share.

All works printed by the artist on Epson Velvet Fine Art Paper and K3 Archival Inks.

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 I love those dead leaves laying around like jewels under Pohutukawa trees at the beach or park. Each one a different message of chance, change and passing on... Obituaries to one leaf from a tree of many where it helped grow the whole. Aren't we all like that, each a part of the society we help to make? 
This leaf, this New Zealand icon represents to me the one that could not have lived 
but for the many. Each of us might have this history of damage, disease, life and death etched on us as 
we lay still and silent after the race of life. I place it here, hovering over a field of kowhaiwhai which references Theo Scoon's artworks of the 1950s. Theo was an immigrant from Eastern Europe who as left me 
with one of my most basic references of Aotearoa. His patternation is my sky, my forest and my sea and even my paisley. Passing on, we must all move through this place and this leaf represents the trials 
but also the beauty of that process. Era i roto te rangimarie.

All works printed by the artist on Epson Velvet Fine Art Paper and K3 Archival Inks.

Available Framed and Unframed in sizes A4, A3,A2 and A1.  Please enquire for wait time for Framed

 Ngati Pakeha Tiki are a homage to being Pakeha in Aotearoa New Zealand. These artworks say that the Tiki is ubiquitous in all that we do, no matter where we are or what our values might be. They come from a line of artworks I was painting in the early 2000s. they are updated and printed but the longevity of the acceptance and love of them New Zealanders express speaks to a deep trust and joy. They say everything in the World now has a little of New Zealand in it and acknowledge that Tiki all have a little of every part of the World in them. While a play on the plastic Tiki of the Tourist trade, these artworks invite us to hold a special place in our home for our nations developing cultural identity. In ancient times the Tiki were fertility symbols an d still today these artworks might be seen to represent the fertility of the ethnic mix here in Aotearoa. While often having humorous overtones or strong style themes the more specific and serous message is that we are all one. 

All works printed by the artist on Epson Velvet Fine Art Paper and K3 Archival Inks.

Available Framed and Unframed in sizes A4, A3,A2 and A1.  Please enquire for wait time for Framed

Miss Kiwianaville is an image about the the love of things Kiwi and the beauty we are creating about it. I have taken an archetypal White female image from the internet and colonized the page with it and looked for what it is we love about where and who we are. It also suggests a need to stamp on the motifs that make us hip and groovy. All people like to create a look. A way to see who we are. The love affair New Zealanders are having with “Kiwiana” I think is evidence of the pendulum swinging back against the “appropriation” arguments of the 80s and 90s which have proved themselves to be very last century. Kiwis want to celebrate the individual styles that our society has created. Many of these revolve around the likes of Moko and Kawhaiwhai patterns so specific to Maori but also the likes of the “Buzzy Bee” and Kowhai flower. The blue sky background links us to our beautiful South Sea’s weather and the Kiwi love of a sunny day at the beach. This version is set in stamp style to link with my other works but there is also a simple portrait version.

All works printed by the artist on Epson Velvet Fine Art Paper and K3 Archival Inks.

Available Framed and Unframed in sizes A4, A3,A2 and A1.  Please enquire for wait time for Framed

Ngati Pakeha Tiki are a celebration of being Pakeha in this country. These artworks say that the Tiki is ubiquitous in all that we do, no matter where we travel. Ngati Pakeha Tiki come from a line of work I was painting in the early 2000s. They are updated and printed but the longevity of the acceptance and love of them speak to a deep trust and joy.

They say that everything in the World now has a little of New Zealand-Aotearoa in it and acknowledge that Tiki all have a little of every part of the World in them.

While a play on the plastic Tiki of the tourist trade, these artworks invite us to hold a special place in our home for our nations developing cultural identity.

Tiki were and are fertility symbols and still today my adaptations might be seen to represent the fertility of the ethnic mix here in Aotearoa and in deed the whole of humanity so here I mix one the World’s love of the Mexican Muerto styles for the dead.... muchos gracias amibros.

All works printed by the artist on Epson Velvet Fine Art Paper and K3 Archival Inks.

Available Framed and Unframed in sizes A4, A3,A2 and A1.  Please enquire for wait time for Framed

I originally created this work for a big outfitting commission for the Duke of Marlborough Hotel in Russell, in the Bay of Islands, not for general sale but I found her mesmerizing and believe I am not alone in having a growing respect for who she has been. While finishing this adaption of a Dorothy Wilding/ Beatrice Johnson hand coloured photo of Queen Elizabeth II in the early 1950's I just could not stop looking at her and thinking about the 70 and more years of service she has stood to… The gorgeous retro style seems to be a real door to another time and makes me very aware of so much having past in my life as it originates from about the year I was born and she was already the reigning monarch. She seems a great relief from the Trumpian politics of this present day having started way back with Truman. I am sure when she leaves we will be struck that we have lost someone very very special, a powerful part of the fabric that binds us… I choose celebrate her now, while she is alive

All works printed by the artist on Epson Velvet Fine Art Paper and K3 Archival Inks.

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A Prussian cavalry officer who traveled to the United States in search of gold and learnt the art or "Injun Fighting with the pistol and "Bowie Knife" Von Tempsky sailed on to New Zealand where he became a leader of the "Forest Rangers". He was known as Manu Ra or "One Hundred Birds" by Maori who said it was if he was everywhere. A gifted painter, his beautiful artworks of his adventures in the bush seem utterly at odds with his penchant for fighting Maori at close range and in their own space. At first glance this image of him might seem decidedly romantic. However, the face is taken from a photo of the actual man and his tattoos are based on his actual artworks. the devil may care look to him is very true to who we understand him to have been. He died rescuing another fighter, some say chasing the Victoria Cross that Charles Heaphy had won fighting alongside him at an earlier engagement. He was a prized catch for Maori and it is reported that because of the esteem the held his war like nature in he enjoyed the ceremony of a funeral pyre rather than being eaten. His sword and personal belongings were kept to be hidden for all time. Von Tempsky was a man of his times, an artist, writer and warrior, bread to understand that life was best expressed through art and the written word and lost in battle.

All works printed by the artist on Epson Velvet Fine Art Paper and K3 Archival Inks.

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This image was inspired by a World War One propaganda image of the “New Zealand War Dog”. This old image shows a British Bulldog standing on a New Zealand flag thrown across the Union Jack. That 1914 dog wore the three Huia feathers, the Tiki and Moko shown here. I have updated the concept as tribute to the sacrifices made for New Zealand in Europe and in fact all N.Z. military personnel. While I think war is not something to be glorified, the courage and ability to protect ones social structure is an imperative. I believe one of the true Kiwi traits is resolve. The resolve to steadfastly stand behind a value. The men and women who actually put themselves in harms way that we may live free must be remembered and thanked. This dog represents the New Zealand resolve to stand and fight for what we think is right against anyone. This image also though reminds me that the use of the facial moko to designate New Zealandness is not a new thing but part of our character and art stylings for many years, since the birth of the nation really.

All works printed by the artist on Epson Velvet Fine Art Paper and K3 Archival Inks.

Available Framed and Unframed in sizes A4, A3,A2 and A1.  Please enquire for wait time for Framed