Harbouring Light

Oil on canvas

Dimensions: 320 × 420 mm, Framed

2026

Harbouring Light place a solitary, luminous structure within a landscape settling into darkness. Across the deep blue-grey expanse, its pale roof catches the last of the light, a small sign of warmth, shelter and return. The surrounding hills recede into mist, making the building feel both distant and deeply longed for. 

Architecture is used sparingly, as a point around which space and feeling can gather. Here, the structure becomes more than a building. It holds the idea of refuse, a place carried within us when the world feels vast or uncertain. Harbouring Light speaks to the enduring pull of home, a quiet light in the distance and the promise of somewhere to return to. 

About Kelly:

Kelly Rowe is an artist and designer based on Auckland’s North Shore, where the

changing light and weather of the coast are a constant presence in her work.

Trained as an architect, Kelly continues to work in commercial interior design as

part of Maken, an Auckland design studio. This background naturally finds its way

into her paintings through an interest in space, proportion, light and the idea of

shelter.

Her imagined oil landscapes range from purely atmospheric works to paintings in

which a small architectural form appears within the landscape. She is drawn to

the way a passing cloud, a distant horizon or a subtle shift in light can completely

change how a place is seen and felt.

When architecture does appear, it is often only the smallest gesture, perhaps a

roofline or an illuminated plane. It is less about depicting a particular building and

more about introducing a sense of human presence, refuge or somewhere we

might recognise before we are able to name it.

Kelly’s paintings develop slowly through layers of translucent colour. Forms are

softened, obscured and sometimes painted over, allowing traces of earlier

decisions to remain. Her work explores the tension between what is visible and

what is withheld, while leaving room for the viewer’s own memories and emotional

connections.

Through these quiet, imagined landscapes, Kelly hopes to offer a moment of

stillness and the feeling of looking towards something distant, familiar and quietly

reassuring.

Kelly won the Winsor & Newton Auckland Art Award in 2024 and received a Merit

Award at the National Contemporary Art Award in 2025. Her work has also been

recognised as a finalist in the Estuary Art and Ecology Award, the Craigs Aspiring

Art Prize and the Soho Art Prize, Sydney.