FALLING WATERS

I believe the land uses the water that falls upon it to express it's deepest spiritual self.

These waterfalls were insistent on coming into being and I felt compelled to paint them.

I think the origins of these paintings go back to the way I grew up. Much of my early life was spent in the outback country of Hokianga. Although much of my schooling there was poor, my very rich education was in exploring and knowing the land, the hills and mountains, the creeks and rivers, the waterfalls.

A waterfall appeared in my painting probably fifteen years ago but as I was impatient and had painted it over another work of the wrong shape, it was a failure and I was discouraged, and let the idea drop.

Recently, I came across a canvas in an Art shop that someone had ordered and no longer wanted. It was rather long and narrow. Some days after seeing it, the waterfall idea, so long dormant, resurfaced and I went back and bought that canvas.

That became the first in this series. I do believe they have come from the garnerings of my childhood.

I like to think of waterfalls as being emblematic of New Zealand, the real New Zealand that has still escaped so much destructive and unsympathetic modern development.

ANNETTE ISBEY July 2002