EXHIBITION OF PAINTINGS.

Press, Volume LXIX, Issue 20898, 4 July 1933, Page 6

EXHIBITION OF PAINTINGS.

+ MR JAMES COOK'S WVSRK. The exhibition of paintings and drawings by Mr James Cook, at Messrs H. Fisher and Son's gallery, which opened yesterday, contains some of the most interesting of th»<s artist's work in oils. Mr Cook hOT? chiefly attracted attention for his pencil drawings and the qualities of fine draughtsmanship which he carried over from his drawings to his other work, and the present exhibition, though small, is fairly representative. It includes, besides landscapes in oils, several in water-colour, and a few drawings. The landscapes have all a distinctive brooding quality, a life of their own. At first meeting they seem sombre —Mr Cook has been true to New Zealand scenery in his representation of browns and dark greens —but they quickly reveal themselves as full of their own light. Of the earlier work, painted in France some years ago, "Le Pont, Avignon," is a pleasing and warm treatment of a mainly architectural subject, while ••Near Crestet" has a fairylike attraction. "River Bed, Ouveze," a study in greys and greens, reveals unusually interesting brushwork in its treatment of water. "Port Chalmers Inlet" is a revelation of the way in which some of the younger Christchurch painters have broken down the old tradition of New Zealand landscape painting and given something much more dynamic and at the same time rearer representational truth. The picture is unusually pleasing, from the lively smooth rounded shapes of the far hill slopes to the nearer broken mass, while the treatment of water is very effective The colours of "In Central Gtago," though low in tone, are strongly contrasted, with a pleasing massing of hill shapes, and the whole gives the effect of being lighted by reflection from unseen clouds. "On the Hill Tops" shows a mood of the intimacy of earth and clouds. "In the Crown Ranges" is a romantic study of a corner of a road. The two studies of Taylor's Mistake are more of the nature of wash drawings than full water-colours, and they illustrate to the full the skilled draughtsmanship of the artist. The pencil drawings are characteristic and masterly, the study of a sitting youtfc being most notable.