Jana Wood

All-at-once-ness is an exhibition of works arising from an ongoing fascination with Colin McCahon’s vividly coloured and little-known 1971 series of works on paper, produced shortly after his move from Tāmaki Makaurau to work from his studio at Muriwai.

This project-turned-exhibition began several years ago, prompted by an encounter with two of McCahon’s 1971 works on paper—A Poem of Kaipara Flat and Evening Muriwai—at Pah Homestead in Tāmaki Auckland. That encounter marked the genesis of a journey. As the pandemic took hold, I relocated to Port Waikato, further south along the west coast from Muriwai, where McCahon’s paintings continued to shape and inform my creative research.

In the development of All-at-once-ness, I sustained a deep immersion in, and connection to, place. Using light layers of oil paint on traditional rabbit-skin gesso, my focus shifted away from isolated “views” toward the complex weave of daily phenomena that surrounded me. The perpetual cycles of accumulating and receding sands, the movement of the sky’s currents, the restless undulation of the sea, and the commanding presence of the Waikato Awa come to the fore.

Nina Dyer, Art Curator and critic, wrote…

“As a series, All-at-once-ness is a testament to the notion of artist as conduit, channelling sense information, history and embodied knowledge from their surroundings and filtering it though the alchemical business of form and texture”

Read Nina Dyer’s essay on All-at-once-ness here.

Sand-drift, I’m Dizzy, 1050x1000mm, Oil paint and mixed media on board, custom-made bolted on frame,

View from the top of the Dunes; The Fugitives, 1050x1000mm, Oil paint and mixed media on board, custom-made bolted on frame, (NFS)

Fluorescent Flightpath, 850x800mm, Oil paint and mixed media on board, custom-made bolted on frame,

Koroirangi (Halo), 350X300MM, Oil paint and irons and on found board, custom-made bolted on frame,

All of the Fishes swim down to the Deep, Oil paint on Board, custom-made bolted on frame,

View from the top of the Dunes – Solar Vortex, 600x650mm, Oil paint on board, custom-made bolted on frame,

Thunder rolls, Oil paint on Rabbit Skin Gesso on Board, custom-made bolted on frame, 370x350mm (sold)

TOONGA O TE RAA, Sunset 1, Oil paint on Rabbit skin gesso on board, custom-made bolted on frame, 220x200mm (sold)

The warm land, Oil paint on Rabbit Skin Gesso on board, custom-made bolted on frame, 320x300mm (sold)

INSTALLATION (CORBANS GALLERY 1)