With a loaded palette knife of impasto, Hicks paints tiered colour bands of sunset and breeze beyond naked trees. Indigenous references to the artist's heritage are subtly infused into texture and meaning; mottled backgrounds and cloaked layers insinuating a narrative beyond the immediately visual. "When I work I am travelling. The similarities are satisfying enough to continually surprise my sense of discovery. I begin with no more than a rudimentary map of what I want, and then I begin a journey of arduous intent seasoned with profound moments of joy. Just as a seed will begin simply and become more complex as it grows, so the journey of the painting can evolve and become increasingly intricate. When mapping the painting, I consider the composition and its ability to shift without losing its basic form. To transpose ideas into actions your every motion can reveal insights to your character. These paintings rely largely on assumption, conjecture and random calculation. I see them as homogeneous paradigms rather than accurate illustrations. When I paint, these discursive actions become unique and ostensive allegories of my intentions without the tedium of direct observation. My intentions are to discover identifiable configurations within self and place. On occasion, these engaging encounters within elemental parameters are made manifest and the indisputable is temporarily suspended." Neil Hicks 2010 Neil Hicks completed a Bachelor of Fine Arts at the National Art School in 2000. He has been exhibiting since 1993 in Sydney, Brisbane, Gold Coast and California. Recently he won the Marymount Art Prize in Queensland. "Neil Hicks series of paintings is a stylised exploration of trees as a sort of series of landscape portraits. They are more oriental, stylistically, than many Australian artists' gnarly depictions of the tree and Hick's trees are meditative motifs more than realistic landscapes." Phil Brown, The Brisbane News 2007