At a time in her career when many might have expected her to slow down or even retire, French-born Louise Henderson embarked upon one of her most ambitious creative projects. The Twelve Months distilled her impressions of her life in Aotearoa New Zealand into a dozen tall canvases, filtering the rhythms of the year through her ‘abstract poetic of nature’. Borrowing their proportions from the elegant ‘double square’ of her studio windows, they combined two important aspects of her practice: the all-seeing viewpoints and organisational principles of cubism and the ability to use colour to evoke both form and atmosphere. Often inspired by the view through her window, Henderson manipulated a complex set of variables, considering how the seasons affected the weather and landscape, the changing light and position of the sun, and the fluctuating activities, rituals and moods of people in both the city and the countryside.

As the final work in the series, December is a synthesis and culmination of the preceding months. Its joyful colour scheme evokes the freedom and warmth of summertime in Aotearoa, while small flashes of red and green recall the European Christmases Henderson experienced as a child. She deftly incorporated an abstracted nativity at the centre of the composition, encircling it with a curling yellow ribbon.