KARL MAUGHAN

Karl Maughan is recognised for his hyper-real paintings of lush gardens and native fauna - flower gardens, vegetable gardens, manicured bushes and out-of-control wildernesses - Maughan finds inspiration in them all. At first Maughan began painting these settings in the great tradition of ‘plein-air’ - in the outdoors. However, struggling with changeable elements such as wind, light and weather became too problematic. Painting outdoors also became an issue when Maughan relocated to London in the 1990’s. Based there for many years, cooped up in a studio in the East End, Maughan found that he missed the wide open spaces and lushness found in New Zealand gardens. Maughan began to source a growing archive, capturing gardens on film, to take back to his studio where he could then play and reinvent colours, lighting and perspectives. The resulting works were an explosion of colour, encompassing viewers in surrealist fantasy landscapes.