Painting New Zealand

Abstract

This text is the result of an examination of New Zealand landscape painting, attempting to provide a new focus particularly relevant to landscape architecture. Generally, texts on painting in New Zealand provide either a chronological or artist-specific guide, attempting to show how they differ. Here, the attempt is to show how they are similar and a "vocabulary" of four motifs is subsequently presented. The motifs proposed are Horizontality, Headlands, Bay forms and Bald Hills.

The format of this work is designed to be read on two levels. The continuous sequence of images along the bottom of the pages displays the development of the ideas in their most simple form. This visual journey is proposed as a text within a text, able to stand on its own as a surrogate for the written work. The linguistic accompaniment, however, is more than just a passive commentary to the visual experience, adding further dimensions and layers to the arguments presented.