I first arrived in Wellington in January 2000 and liked the place immediately, especially for it's painting potential. The houses lining the hillsides, the winding roads, the colours of the agapanthus behind the council railings, weatherboard clad houses...I could go on. There was no shortage of subject matter for me.

Since arriving, I have remained a full time painter, going from being a backpacking artist, moving nomadically from place to place, to settling full time in Wellington and growing as a person and an artist. I completed my degree in Fine Arts at the Crawford College of Art in Cork City, Ireland where I graduated with honours. I ended five years in Cork, the first city I loved, with a show sponsored by Murphy's Irish Stout, travelling to New York to live for six months, where I produced a small body of work in and around Canal Street in Lower Manhattan. I then moved as an 'artist in residence' to Hawaii where I spent two brilliant years painting and exhibiting around the islands, learning about myself and my place in the world. Here I met my future wife, another backpacker on her OE. This bought me to Cornwall, where I painted the streets and harbours in St. Ives and Penzance, culminating with a small successful show which funded my travels to India for a while and then to Edinburgh, where I had several solo exhibitions over the next couple of years. Between 2000 and 2002 I travelled between Wellington and Edinburgh, painting for small solo exhibitions. Then I got fed up with travelling and decided that I missed Wellington (and Rachael) far too much to go back to Edinburgh, and thus ended my connections with all the sad lonely artists of the world who believe one has to suffer for one's art. (I cannot understand why Gauguin bothered to stay in the South Pacific, even though I am a great admirer of his work.)

For the past seven years I have painted happily from my studio in Island Bay, which is also a gallery. I think one of the reasons I paint 'happily', is because I have little time for all the nonsense of the art world. I think artist's try too hard to be profound and lose themselves in a pseudo intellectual world where creativity can get lost. I believe the true 'art world' exists only in an artist's studio, where all forms of creativity and intellectual pursuits happen without constraint. That's why I opened McCormack Studio Gallery. I'm not trying to sell to you. Nor am I striving to be someone I'm not.

Come if you like (you'll be welcome!), I keep the place messy.

McCormack Studio Gallery, 355 The Parade, Island Bay, Wellington (04) 939 9620

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Hours of opening: Wednesday - Friday 10 - 5, Saturday 10 - 4,Sunday 11 -3