“Neil Frazer’s gestural abstractions are both expressionist and reductionist ‘essences’ with explicit reference to the ‘real world’.” (1)

There is an intense physicality to Frazer’s paintings, the process and construction playing an integral role in the final composition. The surface develops sculptural dimensions as he applies paint liberally to the canvas with vigorous marks, plastering on with a knife, or squeezed, smeared and dripped straight from the tube.

Frazer’s large-scale compositions and complex layering of texture combined with an astute yet restricted palette evokes a profound emotive response. The intense reds, oranges and yellows of Elegy conjure up the heat of an Australian bush fire while the cool harmonious blues and greens of Island are reminiscent of a West Coast rain forest.

Frazer has mastered the realm between abstraction and landscape painting: “I don’t really see abstraction and figurative as being that different”, he states. “Describing nature in more abstract terms can provoke a more complicated response that echoes the sophistication of the natural world and our inability to fully understand or comprehend it.” (2)

1. OverView: Abstraction and Still Life: A Contemporary Survey, Milford Galleries Dunedin, 2004.
2. Artist statement, 2005.