Paul is a self taught painter who has
been living and working
in Taranaki for the
last forty two years.
Paul tends to
avoid giving people a message with his art,
however more recently,
he has found subtle
political overtones creeping into his work.
"We are living in volatile and disturbing
times".
Caput Mortumm literally translates as
death's head.
Paul has reached an age where he
is considering, not only his own mortality,
but
also the possible mortality of the human
race.
Caput Mortuum is also a symbol used to
denote a useless byproduct of an alchemical
process, and it is also the name of a
deep
earthy violet pigment he uses in his
painting.
Most of the paintings in this exhibition
are of old glass bottles.
Bottles are of course
vessels to contain things.
For Paul they also
represent the old world.
"We look through them
(through a glass darkly), and see
things
distorted,reflected and
refracted".
