Although Gaen takes his expressive abstract artistic inspiration from the post second world war colour field movement he eschews one of the movements greatest proponents, Mark Rothko who deliberately blurred the edges of his vast colour fields. Rothko’s intention, as seen in his most famous painting,  Orange, Red and Yellow, 1961, was to create ‘liminal’ spaces that allowed uncertainty, raw emotion and absence of boundary.

In direct contrast, Gaen uses firm geometric lines that present a architectonic method to build the elemental structures of New Zealand landscapes and rural scenes. His colour field and geometry make the subject matter known and accessible.  The result is aesthetic and emotional strength.

His use of geometry with precise lines together with the natural colours of nature, lift his paintings into the Land of Captured Time. In this way, Gaen creates a distinctive New Zealand cadence to the colour field movement.