My focus on space and dimension combines with the physicality of the paint and the variable surface to both undermine and support pictorial logic.
The paintings carry conflicting identities. They combine the ordinariness of suburban houses, gardens and footpaths with a romantic sensibility: dramatic skies, deep shadows and tiny lone figures with their personal echoes.
I try to give my paintings some of the qualities of the photographs I take at night near my house in Mangere Bridge, to record the effects of light made by street lights, windows, the almost-dark sky or the camera flash.
I respond to accidents that happen from spraying or dripping oil paint. Objects become partly erased or broken, setting up a play between realism and abstraction. These chance happenings allow me to enter into the painting and be led in new directions.
I am influenced by contemporary painters who question
representation, and who can capture simultaneous positions about the act of painting in their work.