Matt Payne

“Lake MacKenzie in the Fiordland National Park is found on the Routeburn Track – one of the Great Walks in Aotearoa, New Zealand. Hikers will either meet it on their first or third day on this iconic walk. We arrived at Lake MacKenzie in the afternoon after a big day’s walk and were in awe of it’s beauty. It was freezing even in the height of summer. In this artwork, I wanted to capture the sun coming up over the peaks and the reflection this caused on the lake.”

– Matt Payne

Image Size: 800 x 1110 mm
Paper Size: 910 x 1250 mm
Limited edition of: 50

Matt Payne is an Auckland based landscape painter who specialises in capturing the New Zealand coastline with breathtaking realism.

Payne’s work seamlessly blends the vivid realism of nature with an exploration of the emotional and atmospheric qualities that define our experience of the natural world, directing our attention to the delicate features of our vast and varied coastlines while emphasising the elements to bring those details to the forefront of our minds. For Payne, the aim of his practice is not simply to replicate what is in front of him, but to capture the essence of the subject – be it an emotion, a fleeting moment, or the unique interplay of light and shadow. He is deeply fascinated by how colour, light, and form interact in such a way that they can almost be understood as a visual code, where each brushstroke plays a role in unlocking the underlying beauty of a scene. He says, “The aim for me is to capture the essence of what it is I’m painting. It can be an emotion, a feeling, or a mood. I am fascinated by how an image is just tiny bits of colour joined or linked together like some sort of code. I love to explore the relationships between colour, light, and form and how these elements are seen by the eye when they are put together.”

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