Eco-Magical Realism
Today, my work blends absolute realism with unexpected, magical elements to tell a deeper psychological story about our relationship with the Earth and all who call it home. By blurring the boundaries between the physical world and the imagined, these current pieces challenge viewers to see the impact of a changing environment on the animals with whom we share this planet - creatures whose very survival hangs in the balance. These paintings inspired the book Because We Love - Our Planet, Our Wildlife, Our Future.
As our climate shifts, the hardened earth now denies our native kiwi - and its most vulnerable chicks - easy access to food. I painted this piece to blend that harsh reality with eco-magical symbolism, transforming the bird's beak into a delicate dandelion stem. For me, it is an intimate look at the quiet struggles our wildlife faces, gently questioning how well nature can adapt to a rapidly changing world. (Sold)
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With the tuatara, I wanted to explore a fascinating but fragile reality: their gender is entirely dictated by the temperature of the soil. As global warming skews hatchlings toward an all-male future, this ancient species faces a very real threat. In this piece, I transformed the reptile’s iconic dorsal spines into a distant landscape of native forests and coastal hills - allowing the tuatara's physical body to literally morph into a sanctuary for its own survival.
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With this work, I wanted to explore the urgent climate crisis unfolding in the Sundarbans magrove forest, where rapid sea-level rise threatens to submerge the primary habitat of the Bengal tiger. As rising saltwater outpaces the growth of the trees’ specialized breathing roots, this entire ecosystem faces a silent collapse. I used eco-magical symbolism to intervene, transforming those suffocating roots into a new architecture of underwater trunks. It is my way of weaving a hidden sanctuary beneath the waves, imagining a space where this majestic tiger might still endure
Elephants lack sweat glands and depend entirely on waterholes to regulate their body temperature. This piece highlights the severe water crisis threatening them as rising temperatures cause these vital sources to disappear. I used the striking visual parallel between the cracked earth and the elephant's skin to blur the lines between them, making it hard to distinguish where one ends and the other begins.
The New Zealand fairy tern relies on the fragile camouflage of shell-covered beaches to protect its exposed, sand-scrape nests. To honor these delicate, critically endangered seabirds, I wove an eco-magical shift into the canvas, painting them rising powerfully from the violent ocean foam. Through this visual metamorphosis, I wanted to lift them from vulnerable victims of environmental change and reimagine them as majestic, resilient guardians of their young.
Rising sea temperatures are driving krill, the humpback whale's primary food source, into distant, cooler waters. In this painting, I wanted to highlight the krill's natural defense mechanism of swarming into a dense, crimson cloud and transform it into an eco-magical event where the underwater swarm ignites into a glowing fire. The canvas serves as a visual reminder of the warming oceans and the wildlife deeply affected by them.
Guided by natural instincts that are increasingly disrupted by extreme weather and shifting climates, the Monarch butterfly's historic migration routes face an uncertain future. With this painting, I wanted to visualise a chilling arrival: the migrating monarchs cluster upon forest trees, only to find the branches have transformed into frozen icicles. For me, the work captures the profound vulnerability of a species whose very method of survival is being rewritten by climate change.
With this piece, I wanted to explore the puffin, a bird uniquely engineered to "fly" both through the air to scout for food and deep beneath the ocean in pursuit of fish. As warming seas drive their prey into distant, cooler waters, the puffins’ rigid instinct to return to the exact same nesting site creates a tragic evolutionary mismatch. In an eco-magical blending of environments, I suspended the birds in an overlapping space where ocean, sky, and land become indistinguishable. I painted one puffin looking out through a sky made of water, another swimming through a sea that blends with the sky, while others rest on nesting rocks now submerged beneath a phantom sky - trapping the colony in a beautiful, upside-down limbo they can no longer fully navigate.
For the front cover artwork, I wanted to bring together seven distinct species from around the world to tell a single, shared story of survival: the polar bear, puffin, sea turtle, humpback whale, snow leopard, snowshoe hare, and elephant. In this painting, I have blended their environments into one overlapping world where Arctic ice, deep ocean currents, rugged terrain, and arid plains all merge together. This eco-magical landscape shows how connected our planet really is, confronting us with a simple truth; though these creatures call different corners of the world home, they all face the exact same fragile future.
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In this painting, I wanted to capture how climate change is actively reshaping the territory of the endangered snow leopard. As rising global temperatures force the treeline upward and melt alpine glaciers, the leopard’s boundless world physically and symbolically shrinks. I chose to express this through a magical metamorphosis: the painting shows majestic alpine peaks reducing into jagged rocks, softening into fragile mounds of snow, and finally melting away into quiet puddles. It serves as a striking visual metaphor for a majestic habitat quite literally slipping away.
Dependent on massive, daily volumes of bamboo for survival, the giant panda faces an uncertain future as climate-induced flooding and rising temperatures threaten its native forests. To capture this upheaval, I created a visual metamorphosis where rising floodwaters actively dissolve and reconstruct the forest around the panda. Through this imagery, I wanted to question how its life can endure when its entire world is being so radically reshaped.
The koala depends entirely on eucalyptus leaves. As excess carbon dioxide infiltrates the pores of these leaves, it silently elevates their toxicity while stripping away vital nutrients. I chose to capture this through an eco-magical metamorphosis, showing the excess gas overtaking a single leaf that gradually blends with the twisting branches of the parent tree. It is a visual metaphor for a home quite literally turning toxic to its own wildlife.
With this piece, I wanted to focus on the vanishing sea ice that is denying the polar bear its essential platform for hunting, breeding, and survival. Through an eco-magical transformation, I reimagined the frozen sea as a living memorial. If you look closely, the shapes of polar bears reveal themselves within the remaining sea ice. It stands as a quiet reminder of our current reality: that if the ice disappears, these magnificent animals will be nothing more than a memory.
Driven by an instinctive need to return to the exact beach where they were born, female sea turtles face an increasingly precarious future as coastal storms destroy their vulnerable nesting sites. In an eco-magical response to this changing environment, I wanted to literally turn the elements on their head. I placed the turtle within a beautifully upturned reality—navigating a world where her nesting site is submerged beneath the waves, and the vast sea has seamlessly become her sky.
With this painting, I wanted to explore the vulnerable future of the snowshoe hare, whose seasonal camouflage - moulting from earth-brown to snow-white - is governed strictly by shifting day length rather than temperature. As rising global temperatures cause winter snows to melt prematurely, this innate defense mechanism becomes a dangerous liability, leaving white hares utterly exposed against a contrasting landscape. Through an eco-magical blending of the animal and its surroundings, the artwork invites the viewer directly into this perilous game of survival. Six snowshoe hares are subtly hidden within the physical textures of the terrain - challenging us to find them before the changing world exposes them completely. (This painting was successfully auctioned to raise funds for WWF-NZ).
For the back cover artwork, I wanted to bring together seven distinct species from New Zealand and around the world to tell a shared story of survival: the koala, giant panda, fairy tern, Bengal tiger, tuatara, Monarch butterfly, and kiwi. In this painting, I have blended their habitats into one overlapping sanctuary where eucalyptus forests, bamboo groves, and native New Zealand bush all merge together. This eco-magical landscape shows how connected our planet really is, reminding us that even though these creatures live far apart, they are all facing the exact same fragile future. (Sold)
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How are paintings created?
See how a painting unfolds below: