Fresh frosted air, open expanse, and a mountain range blanketed from a blossom tree. Tussock warriors guard the solemn pass. Trepid spaces holding time, harsh but beautiful.

Valley’s flow into each another like a magic land, the winning land. I feel as if I’m special, visiting you, like I’ve travelled into a secret place that only few are privy to, like stepping through the wardrobe to Narnia. Our Narnia, Otago’s.

Human made landmarks tell the tale of our past. They make a home nestled amongst the landscape like an old friend.

The Pig Root tells a tale, and my stories are interwoven into it. The beauty gives and mystifies. It promises new discoveries, new compositions, new places to explore, like reading an epic novel on highway 85.

This series of paintings has been a chance to give myself an opportunity to pause, pursue and explore the sense of place I feel when emersed on State Highway 85, also known as the Pig Root.

When prompted to think about my own pepeha (introduction), I acknowledged the pig roots importance in my life, when I chose it as my place of belonging alongside the Maniototo.

I pondered on my connection to this place. As a child I spent holidays emersed in adventures in Naseby. I wondered if it went deeper. As a pakeha, that rugged, raw, empty but expansive landscape may evoke a sense of my New Zealand farming whakapapa, living in the rural. But perhaps it traces back to my distant Scottish ancestral memories.

Ive always driven this road to whānau in Central Otago. Queenstown, Naseby, Clyde, Arrowtown, and Five Rivers. It’s the end of the road past highway 85.

Often human made landmarks make their way into my work. They are a companion, hitch hiking and piggybacking off the landscapes adventure, or a mark of our domestic relationships with it. Ive acknowledged to myself, I have a curiosity for road signage. Although these are intended as safety features to guide us, they also act as images of symmetry or quirk, accompanying us to mark the journey, location and destination but also as a time stamp. They are a composition in themselves and become a part of the wider landscape from the perspective of the road.

I hope you enjoy this series of work. Whether you simply understand how important a journey can be, connect with the paint strokes/colours and energy from the artwork, or retain your own experience with the pig root or the destinations it leads to.

James Kerr

Playing with Light

Bruse and Kerr both celebrate an enthusiasm for light within this exhibition. Light is a source of creativity for both artists and shares a common inspira- tion within their work.

James Kerr graduated with a degree of fine art in Dunedin, New Zealand and is inspired through experiencing natural places during travels. Kerr utilises light as a tool which paints the mood of the natural Australasian landscape in his work and is used to portray an appreciation for natural places while ex- perimenting with heightened colours. Light creates a recipe for colour and tone and Kerr is drawn to shadows in his landscapes. These are defined by sunlight and the effect this has on the tone and colour of the natural sur- roundings which conjure an emotive experience within the viewer.

Elliot Bruse is an electrician as well as a musician, and both skills influence his creative approach when making art. Bruse’s sculptures utilise recycled musical instruments, electrical lighting and turned and polished West Aus- tralian red wood recycled from building sites. The sculptor celebrates the af- terlife of the instrument; utilising the absence of music helps us focus on the silent form, while breathing new life into the instrument through light. Using electricity, musical instruments are illuminated, with the sculptor utilising light and pattern through symmetrical holes within found objects.

Experiences within the artists environment have a profound influence on each of their practices, both with a unique use of light and shadow which form the exhibition ‘Playing with Light’.

Western Australia (James Kerr)

Residing in Perth for the last five years has enabled Kerr to explore the regions nearby, like Margaret River. Rural regions provide an inspirational outlet for the artist and drive him to reach for the paintbrush.

While hunting waves as a surfer, Kerr is drawn to majestic places like the Boranup forest and is influenced and inspired by the grandeur and light in the natural environment. Utilising colour to capture the sun rays spilling through the forest openings and onto gumtree bark, the artist highlights the light beaming through the trees, magnifying the magical feel of the forest.

Works like ‘Boranup Wanderer’ hint at a spiritual partnership with the landscape; a transparent and mysterious figure journey’s toward the forest down a open pathway made from splashes and drips of oil paint.

Other paintings such as ‘WA outing’ convey cultural significance towards the Western Australian lifestyle and ‘beachy' influence, with a family enjoying the surfing scene at the local surf break, “The Spot”.

Australian Outback (James Kerr)

Travelling to the wild Australian outback, the artist provides a glimpse into the sparse landscape. These are not void of beauty or colour as illustrated in his work. Kerr captures the sun reflecting against the red earth and the local flora like the birdwood grass, gumtrees and feathertop wiregrass, crafting a warm yet isolated silence through the landscape.

The artist plays with the social influences among the wild Australian landscape with works such as ’Pilbara Mining Cycle’ and ‘A Dongas Life’. These works hint at an insight into the Australian working FIFO lifestyle (Fly in fly out) and playfully allows the viewer to reflect on the boundary between the environment and human interaction.

New Zealand (James Kerr)

Growing up in remote New Zealand has shaped the artists work and provides us a glimpse into his inspirations. Kerr is influenced by the landscapes discovered on his way to the ocean and the atmosphere that is created with the way that light plays within nature.

Landscapes often include open spaces with dramatic colouring and nostalgic lighting found during the artists travels and excursions into natural settings.

Paint is applied with vivid selected colours, such as magentas and cadmium greens, transferring a sense of nostalgia and illustrating his love and celebration of the New Zealand landscape. Through this emotive response to the landscape; colour, light and tone are explored, enhanced and manipulated.

Figures are often included in works, giving a sense of human reflection and exploration within landscape spaces. In todays world where more people are living in an urban setting, Kerr’s paintings query the relationships people have with their natural environment today and how they choose to explore it.

Park Series (James Kerr)

Kerr is inspired by his local park environment within Perth that he seeks solace in. The work expresses an urbanised sanctuary that busy people can retreat to daily. He draws on this interaction of people within nature and the importance of accessing these places within a city environment.

Plein air painting (painting from life) is often utilised by Kerr to capture the immediate energy and light amongst the landscape. Many plein air works are included within the ‘Park Series’ exhibition and this emphasis is captured through the film art of Cheryl-Lynn Wee (The Makers Portrait). In this film, Wee illustrates Kerr’s inspiration and methodology, telling a story about the handmade work of the artist and capturing the essence of art making.

The Plein air practice allows the artist to explore a direct response to his environment, where the effect of the lighting is accentuated by the shade thrown by the trees and water reflections of sunlight on the surrounding lakes and hidden marsh land.

The painting outcome is unknown, and more spontaneous in comparison to working within the studio. The process begins by firstly choosing where to paint in that moment of wandering the landscape, making this a process of discovery and response to place.

During plein air, the artist is strongly influenced by being directly in the landscape with the ever-changing surrounding elements and fleeting light creating enthusiasm to quickly record the found landscape that has inspired the artist. This speeds up the painting process using sporadic quickly applied mark making, bright colour and impasto paint application interacting to capture the artists interpretation of the environment.

Special thanks to:

Cheryl-Lynn Wee (Film Art) www.themakersportrait.com

Beau Walsh (Handmade Frame Work) Beauwalshjoinery@gmail.com

Figures are introduced in some works, which is a noticeable change in the artists process. The artists states " I am looking for a painting to take its natural direction, and adding something to the image which is a product of what the painting is already hinting at, in this way it feels like I am truly being creative by making something new and unknown"

Kerr chooses to use pours and drips as a method to apply paint. Brush marks are rare, instead we see thinned oil paint moved around in different directions by the canvas being tilted.

We begin to see narratives being created with figures interacting in their personal landscape. Somewhere which sits between a reality and a dream state. 

The artist presents a variety of art work made during an art residency in Nelson, New Zealand.

Subject matter is deverse, ranging from city themes like ‘Corner Dairy’ and rural landscapes like ‘Reading by the maitai in the afternoon’.

There is a difference in the paint application and approach between paintings.

For example 'Corner Dairy' is ordered with human made straight lines, combined with bright excitable blocks of colours to describe the generic walls.

Dairy's a word to describe a small convenient store or grocery store, and is iconic to New Zealand. The artist comments by choosing this subject matter as if to describe kiwi culture, in present time and place.

Plein Air an often forgotten painting process is utilised in many of kerr’s works in this series. The painting is brought away from the studio and back outside. Often with these works we can feel the urgency and energy the artist feels in these situations, where he is confronted by nature, as being a large source of creative inspiration for the artist.

As seen in ' Afternoon Reading On The Maitai River’ The already bright pallet is essentuated, and in some instances it seems to be applied straight from the tube directly onto the painting surface, and in contrast to the flat application in 'Corner Dairy', this painting has very loose and expressionistic brush marks. Light and colour is the only thing keeping the balance in the wild painting, with the subject matter loosing its outline in parts and lending the attention to colours and light we are exposed to in the landscape, which are celebrated here in Kerr's work.

In some instances both applications can be seen, such as the loose approach seen in the plein air and also a more planned painting approach. An example of this is ‘On the road to Mapua’ in this image we can see what appears to be an estuary although painted a pink/red colour. The subject matter however is still readable drawing us into the idyllic setting. Unlike ‘Corner Dairy’ this painting creates painterly effects with the artist choosing to use drip effects in the foreground and intentially leaving brush strokes visible.

Kerr gives the viewer an experimental variety between the works, exploring his responses to his surroundings during the Nelson art residency.

‘Windows' relates to special moments which resonate to each of us at any one time.

They may be a place special to us, or even a random discovery, a landscape washed in light that makes you feel awake, and light's the desire to take a photograph.

Most of these times, you can understand what is close to you, or hint at it, although once you try to grab it too tight it escapes again.

Painting can be the pursuit of that moment, a quest to discover that original instance, to make it live again, and even re-invent it in your own way. 

The title from the series 'Notes From Grey City' , a series with a friend John Z Robinson, played on the perception of the city-Dunedin, located in the southern part of New Zealand, as a grey cold place.

Instead knowingly painting with bright colours, John and I showcased our inspiration of our home town surroundings in this exhibition.

Many of my works in this exhibition use subject matter of a near by coastal town.

The exhibition celebrates surrounding landscapes, as well as further investigating a curiousness for the quirky kiwi iconic pleasures, such as small cribs hidden away, boats and remote bus stops, which people secretly love, yet go missed.

'Swell" sought to represent the ocean in its many different facets.

swells refract into a bay bending and changing as they approach shore, a poem which the ocean writes.

traditional landscape is mixed with contemporary themes in this body of work, where colour, movement and light in the ocean is celebrated.

Works from 'Current' were painted via a plein air process. Plein air is the process of painting outside.

In these conditions the artist is further influenced by the surroundings. The lighting, subject matter and the scene more immediate. Even the people walking past can add to the energy of the landscape.

In this way the paint in 'Current' flowed in somewhat haste, to capture the ever-changing-environment, and the artists reflection of it all.

The paint application is gestural and sporadic. The subject matter open, with locations such as the public gardens, harbour landscapes and Olveston. (An iconic grand city building).

The Title of this show 'Spectrum' played on the artists inspiration being drawn through the natural spectrum of colours on offer in the light and landscape.

The colours being the recipe to a painting.

There were many works in this exhibition, loosely connected, more so the exhibition being a group of experimental takes on the Landscape.

Experimenting with colour, small works described the landscape with simplistic and broad sections of colour.

Throughout this exhibition, the artist further uses enhanced and bright colours as an expression to celebrate the landscape.

"Small Town Thing" investigates the mood of a small coastal town, and "Next Generation" Looks at sub divisions in the area.

The word unkept conjures connotations of poor housekeeping, and something which may be in a state of repair.

The paintings depict areas like the yard of the property with an upside down wheel barrow left playfully, for how long we can only guess. 

A corner of a property lawn with a clothes line poking its nose out, is humbled by a well nestled wooden chair with a plank of wood conveniently resting on it.

A pile of bricks housed in a stack, tells the story of a forgotten footpath in the history of the property.

Refreshingly the artist see's inspiration in this state, rather choosing to convey a secret and private world to us. Highlighted in colour each backyard item has a personality which makes being unkept a comfortable place, in a sanctuary of its own.

As an after thought, a painting called "The Path" hints at leading us down from the property and into the surrounding beach-scapes. Painted in washed down acrylic paint we can view a summery ocean, and beach scene, blending into a world of rock shapes.

This exhibition was the start of using colour differently. 

I remember following a colour wheel closely, analysing a certain colour in the landscape and painting what I thought was the opposite colour.

In some of these works, this is visible, with odd unearthly colours being used.

Some of these hues are coloured over and some of these escape through 

It was great getting into the larger scale with the smallest painting being around 1.2m length wise.

'Funk Town' looked toward the landscape in a beautiful yet booming part of NZ.  

Particularly at the speed of the current climate and how quickly houses were popping up to keep up with the demand.

One of the works; 'Landing' gives the sense houses have landed from another world, rather than being emulated to  the landscape surroundings.

The symbiotic relationship between landscape and housing was the basis for experimentation within this series.

A painting from a still image taken from the surf culture flick 'Point Break' Plays with the mainstream image and icons of surfing.

Other works describe high performance surfing, surfer charicature's emulating those interesting surfing characters and surf-scapes which surfers regularly experience. 

The Artist has approached these particular landscapes semi realistically, when questioned he has given the insight of wanting to "record these particular landscapes to pay homage to them"

The landscapes have a colonial sea scape feel to them and describe coastal paddocks colour and light 

Liquorice and all-sorts are bits and bobs which were not part of any particular show.

They may be experiments, commissions  or simply one off paintings.

"Three caravans", experiments with painting the same image multiple times.

The result is often different, the painting chooses to go in a certain direction, 

expressing something different, each unique.

The possibilities are endless

Park Life - Do you have a park situated near where you live? What does the park mean to you? Do your kids play there after school, or play sports? Are you perhaps a member of the local bowls club? Maybe you simply use the park setting to walk, or spend time pondering where you are at today in life.

Parks offer solace from daily city dwellings and peoples reasons for being there vary and may include; walking, socialising, sports, or simply moments of silence and appreciation of natural places

Within the body of work 'Park Life' the artist selects a series of compositions from park settings painted both within the studio and within the real scene via a process known as plein air painting. All paintings are park settings within Perths urban centers, taken via wonderings by the artist whom selects places which inspire use of paint, and highlight beauty in nature.

With this often concrete based urban landscape, and technology based work environment in modern society, parks are the inbetween space, encompassing a natural element. A place to take a breath of fresh air and regather your thoughts. A healthy social atmospehere where interactions take place.

Paintings portray connotations of the variety of meanings peoples circumstances bring to a 'park' a cricket sun-screen lingers within an orange field carpet ride. A man walks solo down a moon-like surface plain. A vacant chair setting overlooking the lake offers the park goer a clean slate to ponder past and future events, and speaks of past seater moments. 

A bright pallet brings enthusiasm to the subject matter in a quazi natural realm. Heightened colour exaggerated tone and light, an obvious source of inspiration for the artist.

Landscapes and places are chosen to be painted due to a basic recipe of light and colour.

Colour and tone have limitless possibilities which can be changed and manipulated. Bright colours transfer the energy the artist wish's to convey, and the enthusiasm for celebrating the landscape.

Plein air painting is a direct response to the land, and the moment being within the environment. The surrounding elements and people heighten the anticipation of constructing the painting. Mark making is sporadic and applied instinctually.

The body of work is developed with subject matter captured from parks within Perth and explores peoples relationship with the landscape in an urban setting. Painting process is both studio based and via a plein air approach.

Human nature is explored within the series, within an urban natural setting, and the body of work is aimed to evoke an appreciation of natural opportunities.

in this body of works we see snippets from parking attendants daily activities. We can't help wonder at the artists choice of using parking attendants in this drawing series. If you've had a ticket from a parking attendant, you know the feeling it brings, and its not pleasant, and even though this is their job, its hard to not resent parking attendants. In this sense the artist has chosen an interesting  thought provoking subject.

In this body of works we see the parking attendant as a person for the first time, with their lives through their job, however we also become involved in his/her narrative or story. We see the parking attendant compared to hero's from movies, or out solving their own mystery, living out their fantasies vicariously through their daily lives as parking attendants. 

A metaphor for themes in human ritual or fantasy we see the parking attendants dreaming, as we all do , though disguised through the uniform of their daily job.

Other drawings reference childhood through a sandpit scene, love, and heroes, even questioning Kiwi culture.