The Cloud Paintings
A reflection on impermanence, ephemerality.
The sky is reassuringly constant yet ever changing- a beautiful paradox, and reminder that we are fleeting, small in the face of grand natural rhythms and beneath a vast and 'indifferent sky'.
To read my artist statement, my thoughts behind these works, please click the link below:
'2 minutes 37 seconds'
This piece was a finalist in the 2026 New Zealand Painting and Printmaking Awards- one of 65 finalists chosen out of over 300 entries submitted.
Acrylic on cradled board
H 205 mm x W 255 mm x D 50mm each individual painting
Width of triptych with 3 together W 82.5 cm
'5 minutes 27 seconds'
5 minutes 27 seconds
Acrylic on prepared birch ply board
H 200mm x W 995mm x D 20mm
'3 minutes 48 seconds'
Acrylic on cradled board
H 255 mm x W 255 mm x D 20 mm each individual painting
When triptych hung together W 1110mm
My process : I video a cloud and watch it transform- such a calming, lovely thing to do. I then take screenshots at various points of my video, choose and order up to five of these images and then paint the story of this process, on canvas or board. Capturing moments in time; documenting impermanence. Another paradox, perhaps.
The titles of each painting record how long this process took. ‘2 minutes, 37 seconds’; ‘1 minute, 27 seconds’; ‘6 minutes, 14 seconds’. Time is passing. And there is an unstoppable change over time- a mere few minutes from white cloud to no trace.
It happens, whether you like it or not. The sky, indifferent, keeps on being the sky.