Molly Timmins (Ngāpuhi, Pākehā, b.1998) is a painter based in Tāmaki Makaurau. Her work explores gardens as both an environmental physical place, and as a painted subject throughout art history. The artist’s practice takes influence from her Ngāpuhi and Pākeha whakapapa, presenting a nuanced conversation between the two. Referencing her own heritage alongside considered painting techniques Timmins navigates the colonial influence over both the garden and painting history, and the way in which women have historically existed in these spaces within Aotearoa in the last century.

Moonlit Ponga (A Painted Love Letter for Te Marama) is from the artist's recent series Moon Sown where Timmins paints the garden as it is shaped by Te pō, the night, and its quiet influence.

'Under te marama, the moon, the garden leans toward its own rhythms; enabling growth in the deep hours, where the night holds the shape of what is yet to come. Timmins' approaches painting as an act of close observation, much like early botanists who studied plants to understand and classify them. Unlike these early scientists, however, the artist welcomes ambiguity, allowing the paint to suggest botanical forms without settling into fixed shapes.' - Dina Jezdić