Above It All

acrylic painting of a New Zealand landscape, hills and mountains, grass and snow, by Anna Cull
‘Above It All’ acrylic on paper, 210 x 297 mm, 2020. Available (unframed).

A new painting ~ snow on the mountains ~ photographed in spring (somewhere near Arthur’s Pass) and painted in summer. The biggest challenge was finding the right colour for the sunlight on top of the hill. I initially painted it quite a cool, light yellow and also dabbed a little on the snow ~ because that was what I saw ~ but it wasn’t what I wanted to say. This is where summer and winter meet and I wanted contrast just as much as I wanted harmony. So I changed it for a warmer, richer yellow. Much better.

“A painting is not a picture of an experience, but is the experience.” Mark Rothko

Hokitika River Blues

acrylic painting of a New Zealand landscape by Anna Cull
‘Hokitika River Blues’ acrylic on paper, 297 x 210 mm, 2020. Available (unframed).

An aerial perspective of Hokitika Gorge as seen from the swing bridge. The colours of the water in the painting are actually truer to life than those in the photo : )

I ❤️ NZ

A Fleeting Visitor

acrylic New Zealand fantail study, gold and brown, by Anna Cull
‘A Fleeting Visitor’ acrylic on paper, 127 x 178 mm, 2020. Available.

A small study of a New Zealand fantail (piwakawaka) flitting around in the forest (a.k.a. “the bush”). One day I hope to take a good photo of one of these fast little flyers. Every single picture I have ever taken of a fantail is a blur. The shot below is my best to date. Happily, there was just enough detail to be able to use it as a reference for the painting.

Seasons come, seasons go

‘The Language of Trees’ acrylic on paper, 148 x 210 mm, 2020. Available.
‘The First Daffodil’ acrylic on paper, 148 x 210 mm, 2020. Available.

I have so many painting ideas waiting in folders that I’m in no danger of suffering from “artist’s block” any time soon… but then there are so many ideas, sometimes I’m at a loss to know which one to paint next ~ so maybe that is a kind of “artist’s block” after all. In an effort to reduce the backlog, I’ve started a series of small studies on paper ~ and I’ll be choosing the subjects more or less at random, so anything might happen : )

The first two to get picked from my ‘photos to paint next’ file are a tree dripping with autumn leaves (2017) and a daffodil positively radiating sunshine (2013)…