This work is part of a series of paintings I am working on that explore the natural world and the impact European settlement has on the native wildlife and my interpretation of modern life on our natural environment.

When an incident becomes a news item, the media descend looking for a story, not always looking for the truth, but a story they can build around or fit into a topical theme at the time. The way in which the media portrays those who are intimately connected in these proceedings can be extremely unhelpful. These days quite often the story has been on Face Book and other social media before mainstream media have been alerted, unresearched and misrepresented it then becomes the so-called truth in the court of public opinion. I use the birds and their interaction in the natural world as a metaphor. The gulls I see much like the modern media circus and frenzy around current events. The sparrows portray the need of everyone wanting instant news updates and the unregulated and unverified reporting of events.The park bench to me is a symbol of trust, craftsmanship, solidity and an icon of time and history, all qualities missing from this “iGeneration”. The stories this bench could tell, the first kiss of Bill and Audrey back some 50 years ago, the witnessing of Bill’s devotion and the pledges he made to Audrey and still lives by to this day. I see the bin as a receptacle of change. Possibly put there a few decades ago as a sign of the emergence of a generation that started to portray signs of disrespect with the increased occurrence of littering, graffiti and vandalism.

The white and grey of the gulls also convey the imagery attached to iphone, smart phone, ipad, ipod and all the other instant communication devices the “iGeneration” possess on their person at anyone time. Thus the connection I am making to popular media and the frenzy it creates when an incident happens. It is not until you have been through one of these events that your focus is challenged. Who am I and what do I want to achieve. You realise the lack of integrity in modern mediums and for me the way technology is destroying the craftsmanship of an artists process. The lack of background knowledge and research that is needed to achieve completion of the original artists concept. I walked away from a commercial design career a few years ago as I watched the process become instant not quality driven. Time and observation were words that to me were going the same way as many of our native birds.

I have observed Tui in their natural environment for years, it’s their personality, they almost have an arrogance about them as if they know they have adjusted better than most other native birds to the urban environment.

In this painting I wanted to go further into the personality I have witnessed in
some Tui. When you have a successful ecosystem and Tui are prevalent, there
is always one that stands out. There is almost a prickliness about this individual. Thus the title Tui Elite. I wanted to portray this in a way that he was almost at a sitting for a regal portrait rather than put him in a situation where he stood out
from several others.

They say that in the old days stately rangatiras slit his tongue, and taught him to speak instead of sing. Tui were very often kept in cages and trained to speak and even welcome people to a marae.

Many of these birds were famous and even fought over.

So in this painting I wanted to show how he was immaculately groomed for the occasion. His brown cloak and neatly layered wing feathers, his organised plum and neck vail presented as if he was ready to welcome someone of importance.
I specifically concentrated on the eye detail to draw you into his almost human characteristics as if he is about to tell you something. Maybe something passed down, who knows. Maybe he is a Rangatira.