SHADOWS
ARTIST STATEMENT
Bee Doughty Pratt is recognised for her evocative and atmospheric semi-abstract seascapes and landscapes - which include imaginary vistas from the Bay of Islands to the Milford Sounds. Bee exhibits successfully throughout New Zealand. Her paintings are held in private and corporate collections both here in Aotearoa and offshore.
Bee paints full-time, using oils and mixed media - usually working on several different sized paintings at once - from petite to very large - layering oils, inks and other media, rolling, brushing, scraping or dribbling for a number of weeks until each one is resolved.
Bee also accepts commissions for larger works.
MISTY MORNING AT TAYLORS MISTAKE
Bee says "Water in some form or other features in virtually every canvas I paint, often created by using different media with my oils, inks and acrylics in very fluid ways. I like it when this watery spontaneity overtakes my paintings with unintended outcomes."
Recently swathes of mist predominate. Details, structures, horizons - even whole paintings have been disappearing into the mysterious mists of time. My recent popular 'Settlement' Series countered this via the adding-back of abstracted evidence of human habitation.
My current practice has moved on to random spashes of shellac-based ink. Who knows where this will end!""
MOUNTAIN OZONE
"Colour is also key for me . . . I love moody, offbeat colours . . . and use these to capture atmosphere or evoke feelings rather than portray actual detail. Limiting my palette on a painting by painting basis, I feel helps with this. Sometimes I happily binge on a particular colour for weeks at a time. Occasionally some more vibrant colours lead my paintings into less inhibited abstraction."
While Bee's works evidence her love of stimulating earthy colours, some of the eight colour-coded Sold Archives on-line here include sophisticated, neutral works which exude a more subtle energy.
And Bee says "Some don't - some excite or even incite.""
HARBOUR SHADOWS
Bee particularly enjoys the creative scope large canvases provide, regularly working on commission or exhibition works with dimensions up to two or three metres either way. These large paintings are a challenge needing to appeal from a distance and delight with unexpected detail close up.
“When oils, inks, shellacs or other media clump, drip, splatter or run, creative tension is heightened. It’s all on! Brushing, rolling, smudging, stippling, scraping with blades and even finessing with bare hands all come into play.
Uninhibited semi-abstract landscapes and seascapes are created layer by layer. And this spontaneity of process sometimes results in a fully abstract painting - without any reference to a sensible horizon, emerging.
Always a surprise!!
WINTER TIDES
Bee lives and works in Plimmerton - a small coastal village, 15 minutes north of Wellington with expansive views past Mana Island to the distant South Island providing daily inspiration . . . and only a short walk from the Pauatahanui Inlet - another wonderful source of watery ideas.
Prior to this Bee lived for several years on a bush-clad cliff-top above the Otaki River Gorge - an endless weather-driven source of inspiration and then for a while on an elevated Peka Peka coastal site with views straight out to Kapiti Island.
The length and breadth of New Zealand abounds with endless bush and coastal vistas - absorbed by Bee in her travels and randomly incorporated into her sought after works.
MIST OVER MILFORD
