NR8 - NZ & Australian based artist. Using acrylic colours mainly to form various works.

Growing up in New Zealand, I was exposed to the cold lifestyle, a wooden house nestled in a cozy street at the southern most point of the North Island (Wellington), considered one of the windiest cities in the world. My unrealised privilege was living 60 metres from the mouth of the “beach” with silty dark sand and the wind quick enough to pick up the sand and blast it everywhere, I grew to hate the “beach”. Not much of a beach with those characteristics. On the flip side, I was also exposed to the nature aspects of New Zealand. Vast mountains with rocky formations, moss and trees flourishing off the sharp steep edges. Rainforests with an abundance of insects and plants. Craning your head would never let you stare into the sky but only into the over towering lush canopies of the emerald green rainforest. Nature’s beauty is nothing without Mother Nature’s violent and occasional random surprises of torrential weather, snow and unbalanced feelings of feet wobbling tremors from earthquakes. These are the quintessential fuels for positive growth and unhindered change.

Migrating to Australia into the bustling confines of Sydney during the peak greatness of the new millennium, I was ever so greatly thrust into the tempest of “Sydney 2000” the olympics were fervently splashed across the media, the streets and in the chants of “Aussie Aussie Aussie, Oi Oi Oi”. And with that chant I became an Australian Citizen, waking up everyday to the pollution of exhausts, transient visions of city life and an illusory Southern Cross emblazoned on my forehead. Basking in the sun like a reptile, gawking at the real beaches, glistening water caressing the golden sands all the more while blue skies and blazing heat from the sun deliver the perfect postcard picture or Kodak moment. Moving to the sunshine state in the midst of 2004, glorious Queensland. I was absolutely bewildered by nature in QLD, rain, shine, hail, sleet, bush fires, floods and calm all possible in one day. From the pristine image of the Great Barrier Reef to the iron oxidising in the desert sand blowing its coarse granules through the country.

While having the privilege to travel the world and seeing man made bridges join islands together and also witnessing the bridges of poverty and wealth, I have been in fortitude. My art will depict all my life experiences and hope you too can visualise my experiences through abstract skewed expressionism

Ongoing series of Colour Capillary and Abstract series called Spectral Revolutions**

Deriving influence from flora and fauna and their organism structures, NR8 dives into the deep end with art works carefully created which postulate the connections of living beings with spirits, Mother Nature and science.

The intricacies of the Colour Capillary Series use a unique approach to art on canvas by creating nerve and capillary like structures to illustrate the movements of elements throughout our surroundings. What are capillaries? Capillaries are the vessels that transport blood 🩸 around the body. By this definition I want you to apply the capillary metaphor to all the colours and how they relate to the artwork. Individual interpretation is always a must as it can help evoke a personal feeling or sense of belonging.

Many examples can be drawn from colour bases. Water is mainly illustrated by blue colours, brown represents trees, tree trunks, mangroves etc, yellow can illustrate light sources, green as plants or canopy tree tops, orange as fire and red as blood. Other colours represent a glint of everyday life, a small manifestation of a chroma on the wavelength.

So, where do I derive my artist inspiration from? Childhood, Friendships, Trauma, Education, Relationships and staring into the abyss of my surroundings when colours collide.

Spectral Revolutions is a colour mash of various acrylics or oil paints not strewn together without thought but a tasteful mix of colours which evoke a feeling of being pushed through a warping wrath of a psychedelic vortex. Spectral Revolutions uses a minimum of 12 colours to bring together feelings of falling into a pit of emotions. Painted and spread around like a rag doll, each colour represents something personally from a memory or experience point of view. By mashing them in an abstract manner, these feelings can be felt and seen on canvas.

A poem written by myself many years ago is a perfect example of how these feelings are evoked!

Colours

Beauty, a colour occupying the entire spectrum.

A glare simply unfulfilling

A stare simply not understood

Dissecting with our eyes is just not how it's done, instead closing the eyes and using out minds to undress the shroud of dark covers do we begin to truly understand true beauty that lies within.