Karl Maughan has become recognised for his rich, vibrant images of gardens. The works stand as unique individual pieces, yet are also halves of diptychs showing calmly balanced and roughly symmetrical composite views.

The artist's style has remained consistent while at the same time his technique has advanced over his career, small gentle brush strokes evolving into dynamic brushwork that continues to grow bolder and more confident. Flowers are depicted with bravura gestural strokes, an explosion of paint when viewed closely but transforming with viewing distance into perfect blooms.

On a prosaic level, the titles of these pieces place us firmly in Northland, with road names from around Mangawhai Heads and Bream Bay, such as Lang Road, Wintle Street, and Cove Road. This series of painting is thus an extension of his previous Lunar series, also set close to the Northland coast, a series which showed glimpses of the ocean visible between the shrubs and bushes. In his latest series, a path through to the waters is apparent, with the gentle lapping waves bathing in the yellow light of dawn or — in the case of works such as Lang Road and Island View Lane - an indigo blue gloaming.

On a deeper level, Maughan's works have taken us - and continue to take us - on a metaphorical journey through life and death. From open pathways, we have been guided into dense, sometimes unnervingly overbearing, shrubs and blooms. The journeys have progressed, showing us glimpses of distant mountains and the moon rising above a sea framed entirely by blooms.

Now, as we reach the coast, we see the waves rolling onto the east coast shore. Whether this is an end or turning point of the journey, clarity is returning, with the open views of an endless ocean. Maybe this series of images is a realisation that there is a greater world than just the garden, or a revelatory truth about the nature of infinity. Whether Maughan's paintings continue by leading back into the garden or into the water, there is the sense of a greater journey still to come.