Much like many of the plants he takes great joy in depicting, artist Neal Palmer is an immigrant from foreign shores, born in Britain before settling in New Zealand. Palmer has included botanicals in his work even from its earliest stages, an approach that has intersected with his own lived experience, as he finds painting native and local plants as a way of grounding himself in his adoptive home.
“Botanical art is about making images that create an emotional connection with the natural environment”, he states, defining natural as something “more than human”. These botanicals each tell a story that has echoes in human narratives: for example, the Magnolia. A favourite subject of his, the Magnolia is one of the first trees to flower in spring, producing blooms long before their leaves appear. They have travelled great distances to settle in New Zealand, thus becoming a floral allegory for the cross-pollination of ideas across oceans.
Informed by the opposing aesthetic approaches of photography and abstraction, Palmer works from his own reference photographs, preoccupied with the importance of line and composition. While some of his works portray the botanical world on a macro scale, others look to details, some almost dissolving into simpler hues. In the end, Palmer hopes that his botanic practice inspires wonder in his audience, both at their beauty and their significance.
Above: Neal Palmer, Laying Down Routes, 2022. Acrylic and silver leaf on aluminium panels, 3.6 x 1.9m. Courtesy: the artist and Föenander Galleries, Auckland.