Mā te huruhuru, ka rere te manu  
Adorn the bird with feathers so it can fly 
 
A tale, a whim, a muse, melds the practices of Charlotte Robertson and Yvonne Abercrombie. 

Symbolic odes to folklore and the figure, emblematic of traditions within historical painting, however their work contains its solace in portraiture. 

‘The important thing is first of all to have a real love for the visible world that lies outside ourselves, as well as to know the deep secret of what goes on within ourselves.’

Both practices are observations of nature, the human condition and of reality but through protected veils of selfdom. The narrative of the work illumes multifarious transpositions of ‘being.’ 

A kindling to the stories of fairyland, with a prologue to the hereafter invites a novelistic alikeness. A decanting of the two practices expands the dialogue into an effervescing scene. The singular, the intimate becomes a festivity of subjects in their invented realities.  

As the unpredictability of nature and weather, these paintings move, they speak, they shine…they Muse. An alluding whakatauki Adorn the bird with feathers so it can fly is indicative of the artist’s hand, the act of painting is the adding of feathers, the completion of the work is its permissive release into the viewers susceptiveness. 

‘For the visible world in combination with our inner selves provides the realm where we may seek infinitely for the individuality of our own souls.’

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