Hokey Pokey is a painting that feels instantly familiar, like a remembered moment from childhood, held up to the light. Its subject is simply an ice cream cone poised on a small ledge beside a caravan, with a sweep of ocean and sky beyond, yet the effect is richly emotional. The work draws on the deep cultural affection New Zealanders have for hokey pokey ice cream, that honeyed, golden flavour flecked with crunchy toffee. More than a taste, hokey pokey is a national shorthand for summer itself: warm air, salt on skin, sandy feet, and the sudden happiness of a treat after a long day.
The caravan is key to the painting’s nostalgic pull. Its styling hints at the 1970s: sturdy, practical, and slightly rounded. It evokes an era when family holidays were slower and more local, when a day at the beach could feel like a whole adventure. There is something tender about the way the caravan is cropped; only part of it is visible, suggesting the rest of the scene continues beyond the frame. We are positioned as if we have just stepped out, or are about to climb in. This partial view invites the viewer to complete the narrative, and in doing so, to place their own memories into the painting.
The cone itself becomes the focal point, not through scale but through placement and symbolism. Balanced delicately, it seems both ordinary and precious. The texture of the ice cream, pale, speckled, slightly uneven, suggests the real, imperfect beauty of something scooped by hand. In its precarious position, it also implies a pause: a moment suspended before the first bite, before it begins to melt, before someone returns to claim it. That sense of pause makes the painting feel like a memory you can almost touch.
Colour plays a powerful role in creating mood. The sky is a clean, expansive blue, and the ocean is rendered in calm horizontal bands, reinforcing the stillness of a summer afternoon. The beach and caravan carry warm, sunlit tones, yellows, greens, and creams that echo the golden sweetness of hokey pokey itself. The overall palette is bright but not harsh, like the softened clarity of a day remembered with affection.
What makes Hokey Pokey resonate is its ability to suggest a whole world through minimal elements. It captures the quiet joy of small rituals: stopping at a caravan for an ice cream, driving to the coast, sharing a treat after a long, hot Sunday. It doesn’t shout or crowd the viewer; instead, it leaves space for recognition. In that spaciousness, the painting becomes more than a picture of a cone by the sea; it becomes a rite of passage of New Zealand summer, where Hokey Pokey is not just a flavour but a feeling.
Oil on fine portrait linen: 95 x 120 cm; 37.4 x 47.24 in (Sold)
9 Hokey Pokey
Oil on fine portrait linen: 95 x 120 cm; 37.4 x 47.24 in (Sold)
