Water Colour on 41 x 28cm – 300 GSM Paper
The Quiet Witness
A duck stands alone on the rocky shore of Lake Wakatipu. It is not dramatic—no golden light, just grey water, grey mountains, and one small bird, perfectly still.
I painted this from a photo I took during a trip to Queenstown. After I finished sharing my snacks, this duck didn’t wander off; it stayed by my side. I lay flat to get to its eye level, and it stood like a professional model. I captured that exact moment and later brought it to life on watercolour paper.
I wanted to paint the kind of solitude most artists decorate, but I resisted. The watercolour is precise—each pebble and ripple has character—but the effect is hushed. The duck does not perform; it simply exists. This is Queenstown at its most honest, not the tourist postcard colours, but the lake on an ordinary afternoon: vast, indifferent, and quietly magnificent.
I eventually gifted this painting to a dear friend who journeyed from Nelson to Dunedin just to see me. Through this piece, I wanted to share a quiet reflection: to be alone is not to be lonely. The duck is complete.
