Recent Histories

The watercolour paintings that form the Recent Histories series are from a larger group of works begun in 1993 and generically titled the "Natural Order" series.

The Victorian artists imposed their own stylistic and thematic values onto the New Zealand landscape. Great themes of European art the sublime, the romantic and the idealisation of natural features appear in their paintings which in turn created a new genre of New Zealand imagery, something much more than a mere topographical record.

In selecting to appropriate, alter and redefine the work of the Victorian watercolourists, the paintings draw on images from the past and bring them into a contemporary context. They are intended to focus on people, place and time. The imposition of the personified graphic elements into or upon the works suggests another order and historic layer in New Zealand art history

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