Ian Napier is a painter's painter - he doesn't prettify or embellish, but as with many of the Roar artists, paints with conviction and humour. Influences abound, ranging from John Brack his art teacher at school, to time spent plein air painting with Andrew Southall and Rick Amor in the 80's. Animals feature regularly with the same humorous and colourful abandon that they do in a Deborah Halpern sculpture or a Jenny Watson painting. Napier's works are never intended to blend into any background, they exist in the present, jumping out at the viewer with a tantalising insistence and palpable energy. He has exhibited since the 1980's and his works are in public and private collections in Australia, Europe and the USA.