Elliot Love

In ‘Covered Car // Point Chevalier’, Elliot Love presents a quiet yet deeply resonant scene he discovered during one of the country’s lockdowns. Drawn first to the geometry of the setting, the boxy art deco house, and the triangulated forms of neighbouring rooftops, he found the composition compelling but incomplete until he spent a week creating studies in graphite, which led to a final, clarifying decision: to strip the composition of colour.

Rendered in black and white, the work takes on a muted stillness true to the moment of discovery. A sense of pause, of inanimateness, pervades the street. The house’s curtains are drawn during daylight hours; there is a distinct absence of people, and the car is shrouded; each element becomes a symbol of isolation, uncertainty, and subdued daily rhythm. The covered vehicle, in particular, is mysterious and only half-recognisable, mirroring the masked and veiled sense of the world at that time. What lies beneath it? Elliot has said some of his audience guesses a Porsche based on the form alone; however, he prefers to leave the answer unknown.

Recurring motifs of ‘three’, such as the trio of parked cars, the stepped tiers of the building, and clouds drifting in uneven formation, bring a subtle rhythm and order to the artwork. Together, they echo the quiet repetition of life during lockdown.

Love’s meticulous eye for detail and sense of restraint infuse the suburban setting with emotional depth, transforming the familiar into something quietly enigmatic. The result is a work grounded in place – Auckland’s Point Chevalier – and timeless in its atmosphere.

Artist Bio

Elliot Love is a contemporary painter living in Auckland, New Zealand.

Nostalgia is inherent in these acutely observed depictions of Love’s obsessive interest in cars of the 1980’s and 90’s, all set within a city’s still and lifeless streets. Working in both oil and acrylic on canvas, often on an unusually small scale, Love’s beautifully rendered compositions present delightful mysteries and provoke inspection, with an invitation to linger within his finely detailed architectural landscapes.

Equal attention is given to light; the humming glow of a street lamp, a glint reflecting off the boot of the car, or shadows brought by dusk. With no people present, the paintings evoke a sense we are here in secret observation of stillness and subject, a car belonging to someone else’s life: Are we alone? Who does this car belong to and where are they now?

View full bio