Geoff Thornley has been described by Michael Dunn as One of the most committed of the younger abstract painters working in New Zealand. He studied at Elam School of Art 1960-64 graduating with a B.F.A. Initially his painting was figurative but by the early 1970s he had evolved an abstract style which demonstrated an interest in building up layers of color which was to be one of the hallmarks of his art in later decades.

The artist regards the three Stupa triptych works produced on a full sheet of Steinbach paper (the largest available paper size) as signatures of his beginnings in which he treated the surface as a vessel to be filled or as a void to be painted around using a pure watercolor technique. The tit...