These paintings may at first appear to be a wild divergence from my recent themes immersed in Te Ao Marama - the world of light, the world of our present existence. But bear in mind that the ancient philosophies of many cultures refer to a set of archetypal elements to explain the substance of this world, and this particular Greek concept deeply influenced European thought and culture right through to the Renaissance. Plato saw these classical elements - Fire, Earth, Air and Water - as atoms with the geometrical shapes of four of the five platonic solids that had been earlier discovered by the Pythagoreans. He equated the tetrahedron with the "element" fire, the cube with earth, the icosahedron with water, the octahedron with air, and the dodecahedron with the stuff of which the constellations and heavens were made.

These first two paintings barely touch on the possibilities; I have used the aesthetically delightful shapes to simply play with the medium that I love so dearly - the painted surface. As the series develops I hope to delve into Plato's concept of the elements as building blocks for the universe, as well as their endlessly fascinating properties and relationships. For example, the cube and the octahedron have 12 edges; the dodecahedron and icosahedron have 30 - thus they can map each into each other: by connecting all the centres of the faces of the cube you get an octahedron, and vice-versa. The tetrahedron is self-reciprocating. The dodecahedron and icosahedron are intimately related to Phi and thus to the Golden Ratio, x²=l+x , and Fibonacci's spiral. Right now the possibilities are as vast and seductive as the concept itself.

Platonic Solids: Air   2005   oil on linen 1400 x 600mm

Platonic Solids: Air   2005   detail below

Platonic Solids: Earth   2006   oil on linen 750 x 200mm

Platonic Solids: Earth  detail below