Looking at Rocks

After the Trees: Landscape
210x170mm 2015-16
Acrylic media and metals 

After the Trees: Rock and metal
210x170mm 2015-16
Acrylic media, metal and wax

  

The rocky cliffs that enclose the curving shores of Waiheke Island's beautiful bays are a source of inspiration in my work; they are a perfect metaphor for the passage of time.  In his poem 'On the Nature of Things' written in the last century BCE, Lucretius Carus reflecting on the evidence of time wrote...

"Stones are also conquered by Time,

  ...  lofty towers ruin down

and boulders crumble ..."

Over the past 14 years I have holidayed annually at Waiheke Island and am always drawn to the rocks. I've sketched them, photographed them - film and digital, made many paintings of them over the years in oils, acrylic and more recently in encaustic, and this year I made castings from them for use in my current project.  Above are two images from this body of work.