[Photography by Mark Purdom]

Ko Ingarangi ko kōtirana te whakapaparanga mai. Engari, Ko Taranaki te whenua tupu, no Whāingaroa ahau, ko Amanda toku ingoa. Tēnā tatou katoa

It was with a sense of significance that I returned to the Taranaki area [Aotearoa New Zealand] in 2023, the place where I grew up, to spend time painting in uncultivated areas of the Pukekura Garden. And now, in 2024 I am [re]-turning to the land of my ancestors - to a village named Edgefield in Norfolk [England] to paint in/with the St Peter’s & St Paul’s Edgefield site for a month. The place that generations of my people have called home.

The first time I encountered Edgefield in person was in 2023 when for a week I began to make some paintings there both inside and outside the church building, and was warmly welcomed by Richard and the dedicated people who look after the parish, and I felt so grateful to be there. It was the home of my great-great-grandparents, and also my great-great-great-grandparents and a whole lot of extended family before and either side of them. One of the reasons I was drawn to painting here was that my great-great-grandfather, Walter Hubert Marcon, was the Rector here from 1875 onwards, and he had a hand in relocating the building, literally stone by stone, a few hundred meters down the road to its present position. So he, and all the people who were involved, were so physically connected to the place as well as quite probably spiritually and emotionally as well. I’m not sure why that matters, but there is a sense that the physicality of the place was well-known by my people, and I want to connect with the place by painting there. During September 2024 I will be developing a new body of work on-site - making several more substantial paintings in collaboration with the place. The work will be installed in-situ at the end of this time for public viewing, and on my return to Aotearoa I will continue to develop the work and share it through exhibition, talks and publications.

Artist in Residence, September 2024

Opening Blessing | 8th September 2024; Painting in Edgefield [St Peter’s & St Paul’s, Sweetbriar Ln, Melton Constable NR24 2AF] | Artist Talk | Closing blessing | Exhibition of work | Saturday 28th September 2024, St Peter’s & St Paul’s Edgefield; Guest Speaker, ITIA, St Andrews University, Scotland | 4th October 2024; Guest Artist speaker and studio visits, DJCAD, University of Dundee, Scotland | 8th October 2024; WINTEC Research Archive | 1st November 2024; Artist Publication Book Launch | 2025, Ramp Gallery; Exhibition, Gallagher Academy of Performing Arts Gallery, University of Waikato | 4th November 2025 – 21st February 2026; Artist Talks, Whaingaroa studio | 25th March 2025, 26th March 2025; Illustrated lecture, University of Otago | 21st July 2025; Published paper, Journal of Visual Art Practice | March 2025

Warm thanks for the support of Reverend David Longe, Richard Peaver, Kay and Kevin (my ‘painting assistants’) and the St Peter’s & St Paul’s Church Parish Committee, Helen and Tom for their warm and generous hospitality, and community on my journey of painting in Edgefield during. Thanks also to friends and family and for the support of the Waikato Institute of Technology; St Andrews University; the University of Dundee; Gallagher Academy of Performing Arts Gallery, Murray Rae at the University of Otago, and the Journal of Visual Arts Practice, for this mahi.

Vital Union: Painting with Edgefield

Installation, 28 September 2024, 10am-2pm

St Peter’s & St Paul’s Edgefield, Sweetbriar Lane, Melton Constable, NR24 2AF, Norfolk, United Kingdom

Vital Union: Seeing the Real in Site-responsive Painting

Research Seminar: Theology, Imagination, and the Arts | School of Divinity | St Andrews University | 12.00 - 1.30pm, 4th October 2024

Abstract:  The interconnectedness among things in the physical world that is made evident through site-responsive painting is a lively place. It is here in the act of painting where environments can act as a creative force and where paintings themselves could contain detectable traces of the immaterial.  When artists engage with environments to make their work and let themselves be affected during this process, they are participating in a broad ecology that extends beyond their own agency and capabilities and opening up a depth of vitality. Paintings that are built on these kinds of interactions can help us to ‘see’ places in powerful ways that are released from the boundaries of conventional ontologies. As we explore this way of knowing through painting encounters, I will draw on ideas of enchantment that make sense of the fieldwork and methodology, in particular a theological understanding of manifestation through embodiment, new creation, and ‘new-materialist’ concepts, to reflect on what may be at work in site-responsive painting.