Maria Kemp

Regions of the South Island have been the central focus of Maria's Painting for the past several years; these landscapes have been centred around memory and identity. She looks at the landscape of the physical world overlaid with the spiritual, using metaphorical references of the earth being stretched out like fabric, with patterns and folds like a garment. Complex patterning of the earth, light, colour and shadow play upon the earth creating undulating form and design. She sees it fashioned like a craftsman or designer at work, spreading, twisting and forming the fabric into a masterpiece of creation. The land displays its splendour that calls to our hearts for a response. Therefore I am drawn to paint the landscape earthed in my heart, complex patterns, billowing, flowing and weaving through the course of my mind and onto the plains of my painting surface.