The Fields was specially developed for CoCA Centre of Contemporary Art Toi Moroki. Otautahi Christchurch and Waitaha Canterbury are well known to me, since I was born and raised in Hakatere Ashburton and studied at the University of Canterbury.
The fields in the paintings range from farm paddocks, typical of rural Canterbury, to desolate sports fields after hours, to cemeteries. Such locations are familiar to many, yet the paint in which I have re-presented them implies something intangible or unearthly. In some ways, the title of the exhibition is a misdirection. The observant viewer will notice that fields are not present in all of the paintings. The series is a collection of candid moments, reflecting ordinary interactions between people, places, and pets. Half grins, animals in motion, daisy chains in the wind—these are all fleeting scenes laboured in paint. If life is about what you see along the way, the rest stops and not just the destination, then The Fields is a nod to such moments—trapped in a painted white lie.
