Matt Payne

Matt Payne’s Piha Foam offers a captivating view of one of New Zealand’s beloved and iconic beaches. Payne’s breathtaking attention to detail beckons us to look closer, directing our attention to the delicate features of the landscape; enticing foam-capped waves giving way to gentle ripples on glistening sand as Lion Rock stands guard.

What might first appear to be a striking photographic interpretation, soon gives way to a recognition of painterly fragments and brushstrokes, sensitively brought together by the artist to cast an impressive vision of our coastline.

Matt Payne is an Auckland based landscape painter who specialises in capturing the New Zealand coastline with breathtaking realism.

Payne’s work seamlessly blends the vivid realism of nature with an exploration of the emotional and atmospheric qualities that define our experience of the natural world, directing our attention to the delicate features of our vast and varied coastlines while emphasising the elements to bring those details to the forefront of our minds. For Payne, the aim of his practice is not simply to replicate what is in front of him, but to capture the essence of the subject – be it an emotion, a fleeting moment, or the unique interplay of light and shadow. He is deeply fascinated by how colour, light, and form interact in such a way that they can almost be understood as a visual code, where each brushstroke plays a role in unlocking the underlying beauty of a scene. He says, “The aim for me is to capture the essence of what it is I’m painting. It can be an emotion, a feeling, or a mood. I am fascinated by how an image is just tiny bits of colour joined or linked together like some sort of code. I love to explore the relationships between colour, light, and form and how these elements are seen by the eye when they are put together.”

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