This gnome is fortunate to live somewhere where libraries are open 24 hours a day, and where if you're lucky, a bear will give you a lift so you can return your latest literary treasure and choose a new one.
Photo: Lizzie Snow Photography
The humpback whale, here formed of a constellation of stars, acts as a guide and guardian for the sperm whale. The girl in the boat, delighting in her fish visitor, is unaware of the benevolent giants of the sea and sky looming beneath and above her. For me this image is a reminder that the universe moves in mysterious ways that we don't always notice, but that do influence us. This is one of my takes on this painting, but I love to hear how others interpret it.
Photo: Lizzie Snow Photography
Photo: Lizzie Snow Photography
This image was brought about by thinking about all the interesting characters that I sometimes see at bus stops, and wondering who they are and what they do with their lives. Here are a couple of bus stop dwellers. One has just been to trumpet lessons; the other has been shopping somewhere where you can buy a baguette and paint made of starlight in the same place. Handy!
This painting is about those times when you get a song stuck in your head and you have no idea how it got in there. I have a theory that a strange beast (invisible to us, of course) in a bathtub on wheels is responsible for such things.
This painting is of two friends having a lovely trip across a lake. Luckily they are well supplied with books, and hopefully at some point the dragon will give the bear a break from the rowing. They also have some tunes playing on the radio- my suspicions are that they are listening to a station that mainly plays Ella Fitzgerald but really it's anyone's guess.
This monster is warming her hands on some solar powered heating toadstools, which grow in abundance all around the lake. These sun stealers give out a small amount of warmth at night, and also serve as little beacons of light for nocturnal lakeside travellers.
I made this image as a wedding present for two lovely people who got married on an autumn day in 2017.
I really loved the idea of painting an illuminated lotus boat that could keep a couple of friends afloat.
This little painting is all about a forest sprite whose job is to safely transport tiny castles to new locations when their inhabitants need a change of scenery. His companions are a tiny grey wolf and an owl who is particularly good at location scouting. I am a huge appreciator of owls (Thank you, Harry Potter books!) and love the beautiful and delightfully haunting calls of Ruru/Moreporks at night.
The story behind this picture is that there was a tiny dragon who wanted to get a present for her fox friend. Having collected some light from the moon (with the moon’s permission, of course), she made a little crescent-shaped moonlit lantern for the fox.
I made this little painting for two lovely people who got married on a beautiful winter day in August 2018….because nothing says wedding present like a picture of a couple of forest creatures stumbling upon a star-emitting gramophone on a moonlit night.
This painting started from a tiny scribble of a mountain that gradually grew into something. It has multiple meanings for me but I am much more interested in what other people see in it.
This is a commissioned picture that needed to have a New Zealand theme. I wanted to include a flightless bird to represent the earth (Takahe) and a flight-ful bird to represent the sky (Kereru). It might be a little bit hard to see, but you will also spot another creature in here- a rock nugget- these are found all over the world but the ones native to NZ have little fern fronds sprouting from their heads like antlers! This one likes to read books about mountains, while also being surrounded by mountains. This picture also needed to have a Russian connection- the wee castle in the tree is inspired by Russia’s amazing, fairytale-like architecture. See if you can spot the Southern Cross in the sky too.