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    <lastmod>2025-03-02</lastmod>
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    <loc>https://www.melissa-broadbent.com/about-1</loc>
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    <lastmod>2025-07-15</lastmod>
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    <loc>https://www.melissa-broadbent.com/home-1</loc>
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    <lastmod>2026-07-18</lastmod>
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      <video:title>Home (from July 2025)</video:title>
      <video:description>Home (from July 2025)</video:description>
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    <loc>https://www.melissa-broadbent.com/florals</loc>
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    <lastmod>2026-06-10</lastmod>
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      <image:loc>https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/66f0ad02da560d20aa2bc343/62b7bc9b-619a-41f8-98bf-262f51c3a7c1/IMG_4195.jpeg</image:loc>
      <image:title>Florals</image:title>
      <image:caption>Crazy Vase of Tulips in Winter - oil on board, 420mm x 300mm. I'm a little obsessed with this color combo. The oranges and apricots and powder blues feel so soft and warm, especially bumping up against those deeper, moodier tones. It was the middle of winter when I painted this, but somehow the tulips didn't get the memo and were already pushing their way up. And of course there's a vase in there, a bit wonky and off-kilter, like most of the vases that end up in my paintings. I can't seem to paint a "normal" one even if I wanted to.</image:caption>
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      <image:loc>https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/66f0ad02da560d20aa2bc343/57233285-2cd7-4042-afc8-5bc5e0dd2504/IMG_1828.jpeg</image:loc>
      <image:title>Florals</image:title>
      <image:caption>Overflowing - acrylic on canvas, 1010mm x 1010mm. This one had a mind of its own from the start. I set out for soft, muted blooms, but the flowers had other plans - some turned bold and saturated in deep reds and blacks, others got playful and turned into loose, sketchy outlines that barely touch the surface. There's a real range across the canvas, from a rich, moody cluster on one side to soft pinks and near-blank space on the other, with “ghost flowers” throughout that feel like they snuck in when I wasn't looking. Eventually we found our rhythm, and I love where it landed. It's got depth without taking itself too seriously, the kind of piece that changes a bit depending on where your eye lands. A painting with a bit of everything, and more fun than what I first pictured. It'll add a playful, layered energy to any space.</image:caption>
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      <image:loc>https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/66f0ad02da560d20aa2bc343/83ee5096-5adf-43d3-bd1d-77a2ecab5e03/IMG_6081.jpeg</image:loc>
      <image:title>Florals</image:title>
      <image:caption>Juicy - acrylic and oil pigment stick on canvas, 910mm x 610mm. The name for this one came from a friend, who took one look at those warm rust and gold marks bleeding into the white petals and said they looked juicy. It stuck immediately, because that's exactly it. There's something ripe and almost overripe about these flowers, big and bold and piled on top of each other, with those deep near-black centers holding it all down. Underneath, a quiet blue-grey haze keeps things from getting too heavy. The oil sticks did double duty here: I used them for the loose, messy outlines, but also to push in a lot of that rich rust and gold color itself. Half the lines don't quite close, and I left them that way on purpose. Felt more alive.</image:caption>
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      <image:loc>https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/66f0ad02da560d20aa2bc343/5fafe42a-e336-4a7d-bee2-e18d86a2c1b2/IMG_4788.jpeg</image:loc>
      <image:title>Florals</image:title>
      <image:caption>The Wedding Party - acrylic on canvas 1200mm x 1000mm. When a close young family member got married I was inspired to paint about marriage and weddings. This work represents the joy and beauty of the wedding day, and the key players themselves. As always colour plays a starring role: black for the groom’s party dressed in fine suits and bright colours for the bride’s. In the top right hand corner a beautiful large white flower is the bride. The three soft bouquets around the sides of the painting are the bridesmaids.</image:caption>
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      <image:loc>https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/66f0ad02da560d20aa2bc343/196abd2e-0cb4-4749-936d-7ccdfa1b0e62/IMG_4295.jpeg</image:loc>
      <image:title>Florals</image:title>
      <image:caption>A War of Two Vases - acrylic on canvas, 1210mm x 1010mm. This girl is big. It started with a beautiful bowl-like vase of flowers, and from there I just let my imagination take over, piling on this whole riot of blooms. Somewhere in the middle of that, a second vase snuck in, a little surprise of its own. Look closely and you'll find it. The dark sections are all deep burgundy tones, and they give the whole thing a really moody depth, playing off the greens in a way I love. I've always pictured this one in a traditional dining room, catching the mood of the evening and making the whole space feel a bit more beautiful. But she recently turned up in the media room of a traditional home with a modern renovation, and honestly, she looked like a million dollars there too.</image:caption>
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      <image:loc>https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/66f0ad02da560d20aa2bc343/57cbcebe-4e71-4965-b1df-8ad92bb5519a/IMG_4199.jpeg</image:loc>
      <image:title>Florals</image:title>
      <image:caption>Magnolia Marriage #3 and #4 - acrylic on board, both are 300mm x 300mm A long time ago I planted a bunch of magnolia trees around my Auckland home, and some of my nephews helped me plant a few of them, which made it even more special. The colors of those leaves and flowers have stuck with me ever since, and they keep finding their way into my floral paintings. In this pair, big white blooms with soft yellow centers spill loosely across both panels, their petals brushy and a little unruly. Deep green leaves anchor the middle, almost moody against all that white, and pops of red and rust peek through here and there to keep things grounded. These two small works form a lovely diptych, and they'd look great in any room, whether you hang them side by side or split them up.</image:caption>
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      <image:loc>https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/66f0ad02da560d20aa2bc343/e15894fb-5d81-4beb-a9b5-a84cecb9b94b/IMG_2976.jpeg</image:loc>
      <image:title>Florals</image:title>
      <image:caption>Flower Vase #2 - acrylic on canvas This happy little vase (which is much more grown up than most of my vases!) of cosmos daisies and dahlias is one of my earlier pieces. It felt special because my mother was an enthusiastic grower of dahlias, and I have always loved having cosmos daisies in my own garden. A round, dark teal vase sits solidly on the table, holding up this cheerful spray of soft yellow and cream blooms, each one with a little golden center. The greens tucked in behind hold everything together, and the muted, warm background lets all that pale yellow really glow. It's simple and quiet, but there's a real warmth to it.</image:caption>
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      <image:title>Florals</image:title>
      <image:caption>Two Vases and Pretty Little Things - oil on board, 420mm x 300mm. Soft pastels, roses and tulips in a glass vase, with no other job than to look pretty. Coral, pink, deep red and a little burst of yellow all sitting together, loose and easy. Over on the right, tucked into the background, there's a small oval vase with soft white ruffled roses. That one's just my little gift to the viewer, easy to miss if you don’t look closely.</image:caption>
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      <image:loc>https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/66f0ad02da560d20aa2bc343/fd89ff2f-d67f-4a61-b425-9ee25bd9752d/IMG_2850.jpg</image:loc>
      <image:title>Florals</image:title>
      <image:caption>Golden Daisies - acrylic study on 300gsm art paper. A quick study, loose and warm, all soft creamy petals fading into muted golds and dusty neutrals. Each bloom has that little burst of deep red-gold at the center, glowing against all the paleness around it. It's a simple one, more about capturing the feeling of the flowers than nailing every detail, but I love how they seem to almost float on the paper.</image:caption>
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      <image:loc>https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/66f0ad02da560d20aa2bc343/9e25994f-664f-43d6-85c6-eeed1857cfc7/IMG_4401.jpeg</image:loc>
      <image:title>Florals</image:title>
      <image:caption>Scruffy Little Bunch — oil on canvas. Just one vase in this one, but it's absolutely crammed full of scruffy, tangled, abstracted roses that clearly didn't get the memo about sitting still and looking pretty. Deep plums and pinks jostle against creamy whites and the odd surprise of purple, all scribbled over with loose looping lines like the flowers were doodling on themselves. It's a simple, colorful study, lively and a bit cheeky, with another wonky vase making its usual appearance. Fun on the surface, though there's a slightly serious mood lurking underneath it all too.</image:caption>
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      <image:title>Florals</image:title>
      <image:caption>Ready for the Vase — oil on board, 420mm x 300mm. A big, generous bunch of soft blooms lies scattered on the table in front of a glass vase, waiting patiently (or not so patiently) to be arranged into some kind of order. All those golds and yellows and warm oranges pile up next to a pink rose or two, with a little blue and a splash of white daisies thrown in for good measure. The roses look like they'll behave, ready to fall into line the moment the arranger picks them up. The daisies, though, I'm not so sure about. Something about the way they're sprawled out over there tells me they've got their own plans.</image:caption>
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      <image:loc>https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/66f0ad02da560d20aa2bc343/1783206542016-Q1FVO2LDXVPDSOPZB27L/IMG_3967.jpg</image:loc>
      <image:title>Florals</image:title>
      <image:caption>This is part one of a diptych, another in my mini-obsession with white magnolias, and is also part of my series on weddings and marriage. The white pair represents the two partners of a marriage on their wedding day. I prepared the surface by covering board with white linen and gesso. The paint sat beautifully on the linen which lent itself perfectly to these beautiful magnolia flowers.</image:caption>
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      <image:loc>https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/66f0ad02da560d20aa2bc343/1783206584533-7YYTB6RY2QUKGIIMR95R/IMG_3306.jpg</image:loc>
      <image:title>Florals</image:title>
      <image:caption>Magnolia Marriage #2 - acrylic on hand-prepared linen on board. This is part two of a diptych, another in my mini-obsession with white magnolias, and is also part of my series on weddings and marriage. The white pair represents the two partners of a marriage on their wedding day.</image:caption>
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      <image:loc>https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/66f0ad02da560d20aa2bc343/b4753c85-5603-47ec-9544-43605ac0dd71/IMG_4749.jpeg</image:loc>
      <image:title>Florals</image:title>
      <image:caption>Roses in Autumn - oil on board, 300mm x 300mm. This small, velvety study is a nod to my mother's love of growing roses. Their colors always held my gaze, some delicate, others intense, and it amazed me how far into autumn they'd keep blooming. A big soft pink and white rose sits front and center, glowing against all that deep burgundy and near-black shadow around it. Warm golds and yellows crowd in behind, with hits of deep red and rust threaded through, and just a touch of green stem peeking through at the base. It's moody and rich, autumn in full colour, but there's still something tender in that one pale rose holding the light.</image:caption>
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      <image:title>Florals</image:title>
      <image:caption>Flowers on the Altar — acrylic on linen, 400mm x 840mm. This work represents a bride and groom committing themselves to each other in marriage. It was commissioned as a wedding present. Quite by accident, and maybe I'm a wee bit psychic, the colours turned out to echo their actual wedding flowers, which sat on a plinth at the front of the venue. Rich pinks tumble down the canvas, loose and full, with darker plum tones grounding the deeper blooms and one the glass vase glowing like a quiet centrepiece. It has that romantic, slightly wild feel of a bouquet caught mid-arrangement, fitting for the moment it was meant to celebrate.</image:caption>
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      <image:loc>https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/66f0ad02da560d20aa2bc343/98c36474-a05b-4c55-a9b3-2f5da4930b0e/IMG_2734.jpg</image:loc>
      <image:title>Florals</image:title>
      <image:caption>Ruffled Roses - Aquarelle Pencil study on 200gsm art paper. A loose, dreamy little study, with a soft red-pink rose sitting right at the centre, its petals traced through with delicate crimson lines that bleed and blur into the paper. Around it, hazy purples, blues, and warm yellows drift in and out of focus, kept light by all that untouched white paper peeking through. Aquarelle pencil gave me the best of both worlds here, the control of drawing with lines I could then soften and pull into washes with a wet brush, so the crimson veins in the petals stay crisp in places and dissolve into colour in others. There's something quite delicate about the result, more suggestion than detail, but the ruffled softness of the petals still comes through loud and clear.</image:caption>
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      <image:title>Florals</image:title>
      <image:caption>Tall Serious Vase - oil on board. A tall, dark vase anchors this one, its deep browns and olive greens standing solid and a little moody against a soft, warm background. Big blousy pink roses spill out above, loose and full, their petals catching bits of orange and violet in the shadows. Oil really lets the colours melt into each other here, browns bleeding into olive, pink shifting into violet and back again, with none of the harder edges you'd get in a quicker medium. We only ever see part of the bouquet and part of the vase, cropped in close like a glimpse rather than the whole picture. It gives the piece a quiet, almost stately feel, like there's more going on just outside the frame.</image:caption>
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      <image:loc>https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/66f0ad02da560d20aa2bc343/c20048f4-4951-4815-b54b-3af3f6ae0559/IMG_5631.jpeg</image:loc>
      <image:title>Florals</image:title>
      <image:caption>Big People - oil on board. The flowers in this one are properly grand, big blousy blooms in soft peach, dusty pink and creamy white, each one crowding in on its next-door neighbour. A few bursts of deep orange and marigold push through near the top, and pockets of blue and violet slip in between the petals, keeping things a bit unexpected. Down below, the vase fades into a pale, hazy white, letting all the colour and size up top really take centre stage. I like to think of them as the big people at the party, taking up more than their fair share of space, a bit loud, a bit larger than life, but somehow still working together in the one vase.</image:caption>
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      <image:loc>https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/66f0ad02da560d20aa2bc343/0a2e2975-ed4f-41ef-ad61-ec30d109b0c9/IMG_2791.jpg</image:loc>
      <image:title>Florals</image:title>
      <image:caption>Simple Peonies #2 - Aquarelle Pencil study on 200gsm art paper. A quick, quiet study, loose washes of pink and magenta forming soft peony blooms across the page. One flower opens right up, showing off its golden centre, while the others stay a little more closed, just hints of petal and stem sketched through in green. The aquarelle pencil lets me sketch in those stems and fine petal lines first, then blend them straight into the washes with a wet brush, so the drawing and the colour become one and the same. It is simple and unfussy, with the colour carrying the whole piece.</image:caption>
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      <image:title>Florals</image:title>
      <image:caption>Sometimes They Go Crazy - oil on board. My reference to crazy here is really about the forms of the blooms and the colours. This one was an experiment, seeing how far I could push deep, saturated oil colours in a floral work. I hadn't been painting florals in oils for long at that stage, so it felt like a bit of a leap. Everything's turned up, hot pink jostling against deep burgundy, and yellows, blues and oranges crashing into each other with barely a breath between them. The flowers themselves stop being tidy and recognisable, more loose swirls and loops of paint than any particular bloom, spilling out of a simple white vase at the base. It's a bit chaotic, a bit joyful, and definitely not holding back.</image:caption>
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      <image:title>Florals</image:title>
      <image:caption>Flowers in My Auckland Window - oil on board. This one came about after a creative friend got talking about her dad and his love of painting with oils. I'd dabbled in oils back in the 90s but my impatience won out, and I'd switched to acrylics for a faster drying process ever since. On a trip back to the Auckland studio, I dug out those old oils, still in good order, found some gorgeous flowers for inspo, and painted a study warm with the glow of the Auckland light. The blooms up top catch that light and glow, while the stems and leaves below turn dark and dense. Those stems lean on deliberate diagonals too, pulling your eye up from the shadowy tangle at the bottom, out toward the light where the flowers sit.</image:caption>
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      <image:loc>https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/66f0ad02da560d20aa2bc343/2319adea-1ea8-47e2-bc64-cd24bbd21bab/IMG_4651.jpeg</image:loc>
      <image:title>Florals</image:title>
      <image:caption>Crazy Colour Cousins - oil on board. **Crazy Colour Cousins — oil on board, 300mm x 300mm** A small, punchy study that pushes deep, saturated oil colour as far as it'll go. Hot orange and magenta blooms crowd against a near-black background, with flashes of blue, olive and gold cutting through the shadows. The flowers themselves lose their tidiness, becoming loose swirls and blocks of colour rather than any particular bloom. I like to think of these blooms as the crazy cousins at the family gathering, the ones who show up in loud colours, refuse to stand still for the photo, and somehow end up in the middle of every conversation. Compact but bold, and clearly not there to blend in.</image:caption>
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      <image:title>Florals</image:title>
      <image:caption>Flowers in My Arrowtown Window — oil on board. This cute little chap emerged after my irises had flowered and I had them sitting on my table in Arrowtown, with the beautiful backdrop of the mountains competing for the beauty award. Cool blues and icy whites dominate here, with dark, almost black petals cutting sharply through the pale background, and just a touch of warm orange and olive to keep things grounded. It's loose and wintery, more mood than detail, capturing that crisp Arrowtown light rather than the irises themselves.</image:caption>
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  <url>
    <loc>https://www.melissa-broadbent.com/landscapes</loc>
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    <priority>0.75</priority>
    <lastmod>2026-07-18</lastmod>
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      <image:loc>https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/66f0ad02da560d20aa2bc343/334e587e-4c3b-4bbd-863e-c9ac97eafb18/IMG_6096.jpeg</image:loc>
      <image:title>Landscapes</image:title>
      <image:caption>A Pile of Mountains — acrylic and oil on canvas, 410mm x 830mm. My fascination with the shapes and layers of mountains just keeps growing, and this one pushes it further still. I'm also completely taken with the strong pink light that envelops the Queenstown area in spring, washing over the mountains, and the touches of red and pink in this work give a gentle nod to that. The peaks stack up densely, one after another, each one a different colour: deep greens, blues, mustards, reds and rust, almost like a patchwork quilt of mountains rather than any single range. The linework crisscrosses over the top, tracing out a loose grid across the whole thing, tying all those different peaks back together into one dense, tangled pile.</image:caption>
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      <image:loc>https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/66f0ad02da560d20aa2bc343/516de5f2-f14c-4047-8abd-82105040ffaf/IMG_5755.jpeg</image:loc>
      <image:title>Landscapes</image:title>
      <image:caption>Queenstown Mountain Lake - small acrylic study on unstretched canvas. I flew over Queenstown recently and saw a number of mountain lakes below. To me they felt moody and lonely, utterly beautiful, and this little study came out of that feeling. Dark, brooding mountains in deep browns and charcoal greys press right up against a strip of quiet blue water, with olive greens filling in the foreground below. It's loose and quick, more about that sense of scale and stillness from the air than any real detail, but the mood is exactly what I was after.</image:caption>
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      <image:title>Landscapes</image:title>
      <image:caption>Otago Mountain Layers — acrylic on board, 300mm x 300mm. Every day I discover more different shapes in the views of the mountains around Otago. The layers and shapes fascinate me, as do the colours: golds from the tussock, reds and pinks from that jaw-dropping sunset light, darks from the black lichen, whites from the winter snow. The schist itself holds shades of grey, purple, yellow oxide and burnt sienna. Big, bold planes of colour stack and overlap here, warm mustard and ochre pushing against cool white and grey, with a deep red and near-black anchoring one corner, and hints of purple threading through the rock itself. It feels less like a single view and more like all those layers of mountain, catching different light at different times, pulled together into one.</image:caption>
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      <image:caption>Crown Terrace — small test panel, acrylic on paper. Inspired by the interplay of farmland, wild tussock, rocks and snow along Crown Terrace. Deep greens, warm golds and earthy browns sit underneath, with sweeping strokes of white and pale grey pushing in over the top like drifts settling across the farm and the peaks beyond. It's rugged and layered, more a feeling of that landscape than any one clean view of it.</image:caption>
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      <image:title>Landscapes</image:title>
      <image:caption>Spring in The Rees Valley — small acrylic study on unstretched canvas. Reflecting the view from our friends' cabin, where we've spent many happy days, this brings to life the snow-covered mountains, the rain melt, swelling rivers and waterfalls of spring in the Rees Valley. Dark navy and near-black push in from above, like the last of the winter storms, while golds and warm ochre push up from below, standing in for the tussock waking up for the season. Streaks of white and pale grey run right through the middle, tracing the rush of meltwater and swollen rivers, with rust and brown grounding it all like the exposed earth after the snow starts to shift. This is one of my favourite places on earth.</image:caption>
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      <image:caption>Tasman Glacier — small acrylic test panel on paper. This work was inspired by flying into Tasman Glacier. It emerges in front of you, powerful and gorgeous all at once. The blues, greens and greys of the landscape and the glacier itself were mesmerising. Here though, it's the heat and drama of the moment that came through, deep reds, burnt orange and near-black taking over the centre, with cooler greys, greens and soft blues pushing in around the edges. It's less a literal view of the ice and more that jolt of awe you get seeing something so massive appear out of nowhere.</image:caption>
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      <image:caption>Queenstown at Dusk from Cardrona Ski Field - acrylic on board, 300mm x 300mm. My favourite view when I ski at Cardrona is from the top, above Soho Basin. In this work I imagine the view just on dusk, looking west over Queenstown out towards Glenorchy, when the sun drops behind the mountains and throws light up into the clouds. Deep browns, burgundies and rich rust reds dominate the mountainside here, with a faint white outline of the Remarkables against the darkening landscape. Behind it all, the sky sits dark and heavy, browns and near-blacks pressing in, with a hint of gold breaking through at the edges. There's a stillness to it that only comes just before the light disappears completely.</image:caption>
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      <image:caption>Glacier at Earnslaw Burn — acrylic on canvas. I spent a day at Earnslaw Burn and the place had a huge impact on me. As we flew over the glacier it totally mesmerised me. The literal colour palette of the landscape is more limited than this painting, but this work tries to capture some of the magic that is there. The glacier itself makes a strong appearance, with the blue tracing the waterfalls found everywhere in this place. The deep purples reference the schist running through the rock there, dense and almost brooding against the black, while the peach, coral and orange break through like sunlight hitting the glacier's edges. It's not a literal view of the glacier, more the intensity and emotion of standing somewhere so overwhelming.</image:caption>
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      <image:caption>Arrowtown's Sleeping Child — acrylic on board, 300mm x 300mm. The view from our home in Arrowtown takes in the sleeping child, the profile of the mountains that wrap around the town, looking northwest. Locals call it that as the outline reads like the face of a child lying on its back, fast asleep. Deep blues and near-blacks make up the bulk of the range here, moody and quiet against a soft yellow sky, like the colours of a deep, undisturbed dream. A streak of red cuts across the lower slope, warm and almost glowing against all that darkness, giving the mountain a bit of weight and presence. It's a simple, still image, but there's something a little watchful about it too, like the mountain really is just resting.</image:caption>
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      <image:title>Landscapes</image:title>
      <image:caption>The Softness of Spring — acrylic on canvas board. This work is about the way spring gently eases the harshness of winter, smoothing those sharp edges into something softer, and the way the light itself turns gentler too. Layer upon layer of soft peaks in muted greens, blues and dusty pink drift across the canvas, hazy and tender rather than hard-edged. The charcoal linework tracing over the top hints at winter's sharper outlines still there underneath, but everything else has settled into something calmer, bathed in that softer spring light.</image:caption>
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      <video:title>Landscapes</video:title>
      <video:description>Landscapes</video:description>
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