Philip works in oil, water-colour, dry-point and monotype. His immediate environment is Christchurch, where he lives, with its cityscapes, the Canterbury plains, the Southern Alps and Banks Peninsula - all sources of subject matter and inspiration. Philip regularly travels and paints around New Zealand and has had several trips overseas gathering material from which he has painted. He enjoys working with colour and light, especially with low winter and evening light, which create deep shadows strong highlights and exciting tonal variation. He also is concerned with creating an exciting painting surface with abstract qualities.
“Capturing the light striking a range of subject matter has always interested me whether it is the landscape, nude or cityscapes. I'm interested in our emotional response to the often fleeting memories we retain of something we have seen and how it affected us. It could be a glare on water or a pose we see for a millisecond as someone moves in every day life to touch their hair or dry themselves after a swim. I'm also concerned with creating an exciting painting surface with abstract qualities and enjoy painting in warm low evening or winter light to resolve form, colour and light into a warm companion on canvas.”