Neal Palmer has been gaining considerable reputation in New Zealand art for distinctive paintings combining the images of abstracted native flora with geometric patterns executed in silver leaf. Neal Palmer has been gaining considerable reputation in New Zealand art for distinctive paintings combining the images of abstracted native flora with geometric patterns executed in silver leaf.After Palmer's hugely successful sell-out show in 2006, his upcoming solo exhibition - White Light at SOCA Gallery - plans to take the subject to another level. Alongside gigantic botanical paintings Palmer has focused his artistic talent on thoroughbred racehorses.

The breathtaking large paintings of stallions and mares create an amazing scale relationship with the viewer.

Palmer is interested in metaphoric analogies between the art world and that of thoroughbred horse racing: speculation, favorites, winners and power plays.

"I have been toying around with horse imagery for a while, but it wasn't until I did my last show of large paneled works that I could see how to use them. It occurred to me that the horse would work on a similar level large scale. It's an exquisite form and has an emotive connection that is again similar to my flora paintings."

Palmer's painterly skill lies in the delicate textures within each work. Every hair of horse's coat can be found as well as every fibre on a flax stem. Despite the size of the paintings Neal still captures the very essence of the subject he decides to paint.

When: 11-27 September 2007
Where: SOCA gallery, 74 France Street, Newton, Auckland

23/8/07

Image: Neal Palmer in studio with Horsing Around