Waimoana-iti

This piece is a favourite place in New Zealand. On the drive to Mt Aoraki - formerly known as Mt Cook, there is a point where the road winds down through the hills and across a magical turquoise lake you can see the mountain in all its majestic glory.

It was coming on to sunset in the moment I have depicted this painting. I was lucky that day to see the top of the mountain peeking through the clouds.

I have spent a lot of time meditating on the beauty of the lake and her surroundings and the influence of those meditations has resulted in the specific way I have chosen to present this image.

Meditations on this image have revealed to me the beautiful lady of the lake - Waimoana-iti. The colour of the lake, its substance, contains an energy that permeates everything in the area. While the mountain is the Masculine energy the Lake is the Feminine. I came to understand that the lake's influence descends a long way below the lake bed as the water seeps through permeating the rock, and therefore the influence of the Lake spreads much further than one would normally perceive.

Painting this work has given me a much greater understanding of how everything is so interconnected. The vegetation is drinking her water through their roots and as the Mists rise above the lake they carry the water's influence and spread it even further into the surrounding hills and valleys. Waimoana-iti's influence drenches all that I can see here and becomes the vehicle that interconnects all elements. In an attempt to convey this idea you can see the lake's colour all through the landscape.

The painting of this work also involved learning to see the energy lines within the subject and finding a subtle yet effective way to depict this. Working in this way is not about a perfect rendering of place or object, rather it is a bringing to the surface of a deeper energy that lies within.