Unfurl, Tumble, Lush and Verdant move at a quieter pace than the rest of the Amongst the Nikau series. Softer, more breath than gesture.

The palette here is the same greens, pinks, oranges and blues that run through the collection, but desaturated, softened until they feel almost like memory. These are the paintings that hold the stillness of the forest rather than its drama. The way light filters down through a nikau canopy, the slow unfurling of a new frond, the particular green of a place where it rains enough to make everything lush.

The titles came naturally. Unfurl speaks to beginnings, to the coiled potential of growth. Tumble to the way vines and fronds spill over one another without apology. Lush to sheer abundance, that overwhelming, generous greenness that New Zealand does so well. And Verdant, the oldest word of the four, carries the weight of every green landscape ever painted or remembered.

Together they are the exhale of the series.