1996 oil on canvas 600 x 840mm sold
This was inspired by a walk along Pukehina Beach, in the Bay of Plenty. The beach was long and straight, with the Pacific Ocean on the left hand side. I found three pieces of driftwood. One was a long thin stick, which I used to draw the circular ball shape in the sand. I was in the centre, and as I rotated on a fixed point (as fixed as it can be on beach sand), the point of the stick continued arcing out the curve around me.

I also found a small piece of driftwood, which was the exact shape of the red and yellow ferret-like object in the lower right of the painting, next to the beach-ball. Only the colours have been changed. All the rest of the painting just slowly formed in my head as I walked back along the beach. You can’t beat nature scenes for inspiration.

1996 acrylic on canvas 600 x 840mm sold
This is a tribute to the role that toast plays in Aotearoa life. The giant bird is totally toast-powered. Also up in the sky is the comet (Hyakudake) I saw last year. Toast-Bird was my first painting in the post-comet reality.

2003 acrylic on hardboard with cutout raised sections. 544 x 476mm, with a frame 65mm deep.

This was inspired early one morning in the campsite while on holiday. The camping mascot has indulged in one too many the previous evening.

The items in the foreground are painted on raised hardboard cutouts, giving it a 3D appearance.

This was inspired by a walk along Pukehina Beach, in the Bay of Plenty. The beach was long and straight, with the Pacific Ocean on the left hand side. I found three pieces of driftwood. One was a long thin stick, which I used to draw the circular ball shape in the sand. I was in the centre, and as I rotated on a fixed point (as fixed as it can be on beach sand), the point of the stick continued arcing out the curve around me.

1995 oil on canvas 620 x 620mm sold

2011 acrylic on canvas 505 x 510mm sold
It is what it is. Scotland – with Spots. I was holidaying with a friend who was trying to come up with an art concept. This inspired my own flippant concept: Spotland, the Brave. (This is meant as a mark of respect to Scotland.)

1998 acrylic on canvas 734 x 734mm sold
I once helped a friend make a realistic model of the Manukau Harbour. I was so intrigued by the shapes of the waterways that it led to this painting. I have taken an accurate outline of the harbour, turned it on its side (so that East is at the top), and reversed the normal colours, making the sea green and the land blue.

1998 acrylic on board 640 x 640mm sold
This is based on a real-life photograph taken at Colva Beach in Goa, India. The whole town smelt of dead fish, so I went for a walk to find out why. It turned out that the local fishermen dried their catch all along the beach and on the local streets. When I asked why they dried them out, I was told “for the people in the mountains.”
Acrylic and collage on board (Jandal, paper-mache fish, sand and shells).

2005 acrylic on board 207 x 360mm sold
Here we see an inner Waitemata harbour scene, with the Auckland Harbour Bridge painted over a raised cut-out, giving it a three-dimensional look. Rangitoto island is represented by an inverted cut-out, with the paint in it mixed with tar-gel, providing some interesting effects.

2007 acrylic on canvas 304 x 252mm $280
This view of Taihape occurred during an Easter holiday in this town. The house I was staying in still had their Christmas lights up. The lights seemed to frame the distant Kaimanawa Ranges. Then I thought, why shouldn’t the ranges have their own lights?

1998 acrylic on canvas 600 x 850mm $550
How did Space Cow become famous? This unknown star emerged from somewhere above the subcontinent and has become the world’s latest disco sensation. Space Cow likes to dance, but it has to have a funky beat, loads of rhythm and plenty of bass, right?

1996 acrylic on canvas 600 x 850mm sold
This crazy scene was inspired in Kerala, South India, and relates to a giant cow-shaped cloud seen covering the sky there. In India, anything is possible. Cows are sacred there, and are not generally eaten.
Here we see the Space Cow being greeted by the Cheeseburger Intergalactica Space Vehicle, armed with french-fry retros and strawberry sundae thruster. You’ll notice that the dreaded gherkin has already been removed.
The Space Cow is really an ancient concept, as illustrated by the children’s nursery rhyme: “Hey diddle-diddle, the cat played the fiddle, and the cow jumped over the moon.”

1998 acrylic on canvas 660 x 850mm sold

1998 acrylic on canvas 660 x 850mm $1250
Snorkelling Space Cow meets Duck-Fish, Rubber Shark and friends… Space Cow heads underwater to explore a new colourful world. All kinds of creatures float around down here. One of the freakiest is the Duck-Fish (favourite saying “Quack-Bubble-Bubble”). Other friends are present at this liquid gathering. Rubber Shark once featured in an improvised comedy show in Notting Hill, London, 1990. It was the ‘unusual object’ from the audience whose 'Squeeky Squeeky' cry became legend.

1998 acrylic on canvas 660 x 850mm sold
Some scientist guys say that there are only three dimensions. We know there are more. Space Cow is sloping off into the toast dimension, udderly content. Flying on the Toast-Shaped Astroturf can take our hero on a trans-dimensional warp tour to a reality where everything appears as energised blobs of colour. From here, Space Cow can see that stars are connected by thin threads of energy. But it’s a bit of a vague place really. In toast dimension they found this was the way to freedom... be free, be vague.

2013 acrylic on canvas 505 x 760mm sold
Matariki is a cluster of stars (The Pleiades). When it becomes visible over the horizon in the early morning (in the midwinter months) it signals the start of the Maori New Year - which is also called Matariki. The white blobs in the painting are the main stars in the cluster.

2006 acrylic on canvas 555 x 780mm sold
This painting features seven different views of Auckland, plus two extra little views which are painted on the sides of the painting. The top half of the painting is an imaginary semi-surreal Auckland City and Skytower scene. In the “film strip” part, from left: Piha Beach, Looking up at Skytower, Chancery St, Southern Motorway, Quay St. Along the bottom are the islands of the Hauraki Gulf at sunrise.

2007 acrylic on canvas 457 x 605mm $850
This shows seven views of the city where I was born. The main view in the top part of the painting is Wellington City seen from Mt Victoria, looking north-west. The wide view along the bottom of the painting is the view from Mt Victoria looking south-east towards the harbour entrance, Miramar, the airport, and Newtown. The five views in the ‘film-strip’ are, from left: 1. Blue boatshed at Evans Bay, 2. The Civic Square, Old Town Hall and a stylised pyramid, 3. The Beehive, home of the NZ Government, 4. City and harbour view from a balcony in Te Papa museum, 5. Lighthouse at Point Dorset.

2006 acrylic on canvas 508 x 762mm sold
The top view is a cartoonised Christchurch. The Southern Alps run along the bottom of the painting. The views in the ‘filmstrip’, from left, are: New Regent Street with Tram No.187, The new City Art Gallery, Cathedral Square, New Brighton Beach (looking back from the end of the pier), and the Edmonds Band Rotunda with the Avon River.

2001 acrylic on board 480 x 770 $750
Back in 2000 I lived in Manchester, England, and my flatmate Tom had this little robot dog. The idea of it wanting a mobile bone came to me one night in a pub called The Plough. When I returned to NZ I had to get a new mobile phone, freeing up the old one for artistic recycling. This is a twenty-first century painting.

2003 acrylic on canvas 440 x 760mm sold
This is the view of Mercury Bay from Shakespeare Cliff, Coromandel Peninsula, New Zealand.
Cook’s Beach is the long sandy beach in the distance, with Lonely Bay in front of it.
I spent a lot of time here as a child, enjoying the classic kiwi bach holiday in the house at Cooks Beach that my grandpa built. Alas, it was sold in the 90s. Pineapple Fru-Ju’s were the ultimate treat back then. No, that’s not a plug, it’s a genuine statement. The Creatures are not to scale.

2000 acrylic on canvas 600 x 800mm sold
Inspired by views of the New Zealand coastline.

2007 acrylic on canvas, diptych 304 x 455mm sold

1995 oil on board, triptych 760 x 1530mm sold
This was inspired in 1988, but not completed until 1995. The design was triggered by listening to the Talking Heads song of the same name. The panel on the left shows the clean wilderness, with the Waimakariri River and the Southern Alps, in Canterbury. In the centre there are some more Southern Alps, then Mount Taranaki (Egmont) erupting, with an unnamed city in the foreground.

The panel on the right shows the post-eruption urban freak-out. A mixture of cities are represented by their big sticky-uppy things. The whole city is jumping (or was it pushed) into the waters of Mercury Bay. The buildings in the right panel are: Paeroa’s L&P bottle, Auckland’s University clocktower, Sydney’s Centrepoint Tower, London’s telecom tower, Auckland’s Skytower, One of the minaret towers from around the corners of the Taj Mahal, Katmandu’s Bodhnath Stupa (temple), Paris’s Eiffel Tower, and Canberra’s communications tower.
“Same as it ever was.” - David Byrne

1995 oil on canvas 600 x 1240mm sold
Based on a sunset at Puri Beach, India, in 1987. Painted at Cooks Beach, Coromandel Peninsula, NZ.

1990 oil on board 560 x 460mm
This was my first painting! Painted at Hanover Road, London, 1990.

1990 oil on board 550 x 444mm
This was the first painting I started, and second one I finished (Just after 8 o’clock was completed in the middle) back in Hanover Road, London, 1990. My flatmate and I were bored one afternoon, so we decided to try painting.
This is based on the Jantar Mantar historical observatory in Jaipur, India, which I visited in 1988. The man in the lower right was a guy waiting for train at Pokran, Rajasthan, India. I’m not sure what the big chicken with a pyramid nose (top left) is all about. Please let me know your artistic interpretations and I’ll include them so I sound like I have some kind of cohesive plan going on.

1998 acrylic on canvas 700 x 700 $450
Inspired at a beach cafe in Varkala, Kerala, India, on All Fools Day (as the Indians know it), 1 April 1998.

2004 acrylic on board 440 x 480mm sold
Loopy Triangle features paint into the thrid dimension. The loops cross each other on wooden bridges, like miniature motorway flyovers.

2000 acrylic on board 550 x 1700mm sold
Acrylic on paper-mache construction and board. It’s the most three dimensional painting I have done. This was inspired by a small flexible toy dog made of wire and rubber.

2006 acrylic on canvas 455 x 355mm sold
Sitting in the shade on a hot summer’s day at Cooks Beach, Coromandel Peninsula. In the distance you can see the outline of Shakespeare Cliff.

2001 acrylic on board 570 x 800mm sold

A three dimensional cut-out impression of Whakaari as seen from Pukehina Beach in the Bay of Plenty. The inner frame shows the day view, and in the lower left of the outer frame you can see Whakaari at sunset. I stayed out on the beach all day to do the drawing. Apparently it’s good news if Whakaari is smoking. It’s an active volcanic island, and as long as it is letting off steam, it’s not building up pressure to have a big blow-out.

1995 oil on canvas 800 x 640mm sold
It’s the Auckland City skyline superimposed on Piha Beach on Auckland’s west coast.

1999 acrylic on board 341 x 441mm sold

1995 oil on canvas 600 x 470mm sold
Inspired by the Taj Mahal in 1988, and a photocopy machine.

1996 acrylic on canvas 655 x 575mm sold
Painted at South Balmoral, Auckland.

1995 oil on canvas 330 x 440mm sold
Inspired underwater at Noumea, 1994.

2017 acrylic on canvas 400 x 500mm $250

1999 acrylic on board 350 x 480mm $550
This is a working clock super-imposed with the outline of Waiheke Island (my home for a year in 1999).The numbers for the hours are not positioned in exactly the right places.
The hours for the working day have been bunched up a bit closer, while the hours of relaxing have been expanded.
What this means is that if you are running late in the morning, the clock will say its nine o’clock while everyone else think’s its ten o’clock. And when it comes time to finish work, you can go home at the leisurely time of ten to four, because the clock will say it’s five o’clock, Waiheke Time.
Clock requires a single AA battery. Pack of 4 AA batteries supplied with painting.
(Just remind me I said this if you buy it)

1995 oil on board 600 x 800mm sold
Painted by at South Balmoral, Auckland. Featured as cover artwork for a 1B5 School Exercise Book made by School Supplies Ltd in New Zealand, 1998.

2010 acrylic on canvas 455 x 610mm $300
The background shapes were found by massively enlarging the dots in a newspaper photograph...
‘Same-same but different’ is a phrase I have heard often whilst traveling in Asia.

1995 oil on canvas 400 x 230mm sold
Based on a real-life scene at Varanasi, India, 1988. Painted at Cooks Beach, Coromandel Peninsula, NZ.

1999 acrylic on board 700 x 430mm sold
I always wanted to put a loop in a frame, and here it is, done roughly in the colours of the Norwegian flag. Nothing to do with anything really, but someone from Norway might like it.

1994 oil on board 616 x 452mm sold
Inspired at the semi-legendary super-flat called Sluie Vannachie. This painting was made into a postcard in 1996.

1997 acrylic on board 870 x 660mm sold
Hidden in this painting are three photographs of sea foam on the beach at Piha.
The unusual shape is a further attempt to break down the square-dominant paradigm.

1996 acrylic on board 370 x 420mm sold
The photo inside the shape is of Rangitoto Island, Auckland, NZ, by day. Outside the shape I have painted a night scene of the same.

1993 oil on board 603 x 502mm $350
This was a subconscious doodle from Waiheke Island. There are four cartoon ducks hiding in there. Can you find them?
This painting has featured on the covers of school exercise books.

1990 oil on board 610 x 460mm $450
“Obviously a major malfunction.” Inspired at Douglas Rd, Mt Eden, Auckland, 1988.
Painted at Hanover Road, Kensal Rise, London.