Zane, best known for his achievements as an actor in over 80 films, most memorably as Caledon Hockley in the 1997 film Titanic, began painting during his seven months of filming. It didn’t take long for his interest in painting become more than a pastime, it became a consuming passion, often interrupted by his on set responsibilities. Since then he has set up makeshift art studios on almost every location he has filmed in, the cultural influences and use of only local materials influence his spontaneous abstract offerings. “I love the surprise. The joy of making do with what you have to work with. The Hardware store, ship yard, roadside dump site is my art store and most countries, cities and villages are not short on supplies. If I can’t find canvas, I find old signage, shelf liner, or shipping crates. If I can’t find enough paint I use soil, clay, wine, spit, anything that adheres.”

He has been further influenced in his art by his practice of the Japanese sword fighting martial art of Kendo. “In Kendo, or Specifically the Samurai ethic and art of swordsmanship, before it was diluted into a sport after WW2, one should not insult their opponent with a mincing, poorly executed cut. It should be decisive, effective, a clean kill, informed with respect for ones adversary and ones own skill. In painting, it’s this commitment to task that interests me most, the cut, the stroke. The act supersedes the message. Logic and meaning, if any, emerge after the fact, but are inherent, like the sculpture in the stone, and only evident when I have been guided by an almost brash confidence. Painting for me, is more physical than psychological or even emotional. Although, I derive great joy from the act and serve an almost insatiable desire to sling paint.”