A PAINTER OF LIGHT

Press, Volume LXX, Issue 21284, 2 October 1934, Page 7

A PAINTER OF LIGHT

* MR SIDNEY THOMPSON'S WORK EXHIBITION AT DURHAM STREET GALLERY Few New Zealand artists have attained greater fame abroad than Mr Sidney Thompson, an exhibition of whose works at the Durham Street Art Gallery will be opened at a private view this pvening. During his many year.-.' absence in France occasional pictures seen at. the annual exhibition of the Society of Arts, and a fairly comprehensive collection shown during his visit to Christchurch 10 years ago, have given some idea of the quality o£ his work and of his individual outlook, but since his return to Christchurch at the beginning of this year the present exhibition has been eagerly awaited. It is for the Jiving light and colour of his pictures that Mr Thompson's work is particularly notable. He attains his effects by what seems from a close view to be a reckless breadth of treatment, but a longer study from a distance of any one of the works on view reveals the subtlety that lies behind his method. Details which at the closer view seem to be slurred over, grow alive when they are viewed from further off, and everything is given solidity by his understanding not only of direct light, but of the light that grows out of shadows. Such effects cannot be obtained without the most skilled use of the brush, and the most masterly understanding of form. In pictures which at a close view seem to be careless of draughtsmanship the artist shows his skill as a draughtsman, and makes clear how little good drawing need depend on outline, and how it is inherent in the gradations of colour which he uses to convey the form of things. All the pictures on view, and particularly those painted in the South of France, are full of warm light, which is not a superadded thing, but which grows out of the picture. There is never any hardness, however strong the effect may be, and in general there is about Mr Thompson's landscapes a humanity which belongs to places which man has occupied since the beginning of history. Add to this that the pattern of his pictures—the disposition both of mass and colour —is always pleasing, and is never obvious. The present collection illustrates many aspects of Mr Thompson's work. In many of them there is a feeling for the effects of light on water, particularly in still, moods. "Preparing for Fishing" (No. 34), for example, is notable for its repose, for its satisfying composition, and the bold contrast between high and low tones. "A Calm Day" (No. 36) catches a similar mood, but everything has the smooth, lucent colour of mother-of-pearl. Figures are used to good effect in bold colour in "Tunny Fishers" (No. 3), and in "The Harbour, Concarneau" (No. 37. "After the Storm" (No. 28) has light that grows out of darkness, giving shape to the rounded slope of a hill beyond the uneasy water, with solid clouds above.

"Canal from the Artist's Garden" (No. 43) is quiet and summery, with a pleasingly balanced composition, and! another view from the same garden (No. 54) is full of rich colour under trees in the foreground, with a fine effect of distance in the varied greens of a valley. The same effect of the earth in bloom is notable in many of the pictures, and "Lavoir Under the Vines" (No. 49) is only one example, where there is warmth in sunlit colour and cool in shade that is never dull. "Almond Tree" 'No. 45) shows MiThompson as a painter of trees in blossom, and he conveys splendidly the radiance of masses of flowers, and the light they spread to landscape seen through them. How he retains form in the midst of all this light is shown in "Cherry Blossom" (No. 67). A winter J mood is conveyed in "Provencal Pattern" (No. 55), which has unusual strength. Of the architectural landscapes "Chapel of the Black Penitents" (No. 46) is notable, and so also is "Carceri" (No. 69). A portrait, "Harmony in Mauve and Green" (No. 48), shows very skilful painting in the treatment of the face, and a large figure study is also pleasing. Besides the many paintings in oils, of which only a brief review has been given, Mr Thompson is exhibiting a number of pen drawings, which reveal his skill in a different medium.