Among the Pohutakawa (Stephen's Bay, New Zealand) | 2024

Original artwork by Julian Laffan.

Among the Pohutakawa (Stephen's Bay, New Zealand), pencil, gouache, acrylic and ink on Birch ply, 50cm x 50cm, 2024

Julian Laffan is a printmaker who specialises in woodcuts and drawings, exploring themes of history and identity. Julian hand-carves his woodcuts and often chooses not to print his blocks, instead creating unique works by directly colouring the woodblock with pencil, oil and gouache. This is a conscious decision to reference the historical use of the woodcut for the dissemination of information and images. He is inspired by his surroundings, carefully capturing scenes from his travels as well as the intimacy of his home. His pieces are a “reflection of place and time in a single captured moment carved and suspended as an image in timber”. Julian seeks to replace the instantaneous circulation of information and imagery, so common today, with prolonged meditation; a single tableau documented through deliberate labour.