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Shifting Landscape

Visual Art & Photography

via Scotland and Aotearoa New Zealand

The Painted City

Abstract colour street photograph with a vivid chrome-yellow band sweeping from the foreground towards the centre. Blurred road lines, repeated fragments of “NOT IN SERVICE”, dark buildings and a yellow-orange façade stretch through the city scene.
Not In Service (Chrome Yellow)

The Painted City is a series of colour and black-and-white photographs made in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland with a mobile phone. Streets, buildings, figures, trees, scaffolding, road markings, signage, machinery and weather are drawn into bands of colour, broken structure, blurred bodies and shifting urban surfaces.

The photographs remain rooted in the city, but movement and accumulated colour loosen them from fixed description. Some works carry a visual echo of thick impasto and gestural painting; others move closer to drawing, tonal studies, colour wash or impressionistic light. Across the series, ordinary urban material becomes less stable and more physical, as built space, green space and passing figures are caught in the act of change.

Made in camera through movement and timing while walking repeated routes, the images carry bodily shifts, changing weather and interrupted sightlines. Colour gathers from signage, road markings, street lighting, machinery, scaffolding and sky, becoming less a description of place than a residue of movement through it.

  • Abstract colour street photograph of bright orange roadworks barriers and traffic cones stretching into the distance between dark roadway and blurred white cars, beneath a pale sky broken by dark architectural forms.
    Cones (Cadmium Orange)
  • Black-and-white blurred street scene with a tall tower block in the centre background, dark buildings on both sides, shadowy figures in the middle distance and a pale strip of pavement leading towards them.
    Tower Block (Charcoal Grey)

  • Blurred city street scene with dark buildings on both sides, white traffic streaks below, and a violet-lit tower in the centre beneath a pale grey sky.
    Monument Valley (Violet & Grey)
  • Black-and-white blurred urban photograph of a curving road with stretched lane markings. Cars, buildings and roadside structures merge into charcoal-grey forms on the right, while a large dark tree canopy fills the upper left.
    Familiar Landscape (Charcoal Grey)

  • Abstract colour photograph with a vast mauve-grey overcast sky above blurred pale building forms. A deep lamp-black foreground fills the lower half, holding a faint orange glow that becomes stronger near the bottom edge.
    Overcast (Lamp Black)
  • Abstract colour photograph inside a main train station, with blurred pedestrians crossing an ochre-textured floor beneath looping white, silver, turquoise and red light trails. Pale structural forms and fragmented signage gather through the dark interior.
    Light Rail (Metallic & Ochre)
  • Abstract colour city photograph in deep midnight blue, with blurred white tower- and crane-like structures rising above dark buildings, and small red accents near the upper sections.
    Towering (Midnight Blue)
  • Abstract colour street photograph with a broken emerald-green band running across blurred roadside and building forms. Pale grey cloud fills the sky, while the foreground dissolves into dark violet-brown road and sweeping motion.
    Broken Horizon (Emerald Green)

  • Black-and-white blurred city photograph of large office buildings, construction cranes and streetlights stretched into charcoal-grey lines beneath a pale sky. Several small pedestrians cross the street along the lower edge.
    City Block (Charcoal Grey)

  • Abstract colour street photograph of a dark tree trunk and blurred green-black canopy. Gold light glows through the lower centre, while violet and blue colour spreads across the right and background.
    Shade Tree I (Gold & Violet)
  • Abstract colour street photograph with a pale grey-white smoke-like field above a dark black-blue lower band and a brick-red strip along the left edge. Faint vertical traces suggest blurred urban structures, but most street detail has dissolved into a soft, atmospheric image.
    Smoke Cloud (Brick Red & Black)

  • Abstract colour street photograph of a pale concrete mixer truck blurred across a dark Vandyke brown streetscape. Orange cones and worksite marks line the lower edge, while scattered lights streak across shadowed architectural surfaces above.
    Mixer (Vandyke Brown)
  • Black-and-white abstract street photograph of a shaded pedestrian walkway with several blurred figures. Trees, railings and building edges stretch into charcoal-black marks, while bright white patches of pavement and foliage break through the surrounding shadow.
    Shaded Walkway (Charcoal Black)

  • Abstract colour street photograph of a crowded city scene with blurred pedestrians, floating yellow lights and layered text. Pale lilac, blue, cream and white tones dominate, turning the busy street into a soft pastel haze.
    Lilac Street (Pastel Shades)
  • Abstract colour street photograph of a person seen from behind in green clothing with a large red backpack, standing or walking through a blurred pale city street. Buildings, traffic and other pedestrians dissolve into soft motion on either side.
    Walk Away (Green & Red)
  • Abstract outdoor photograph of a pale fence with dark trees above and autumn leaves scattered across the pavement, blurred into green and golden light.
    Golden Light (Orange & Green)
  • Abstract colour street photograph of a pedestrian in a red jacket walking away from the camera through a bright city passage. A pale backpack is partly visible amongst the red, with green, turquoise and blue glazed structures on the right.
    Red Jacket (Red & Green)

• ICM •