Subjects Abound For N.Z. Artists

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31832, 9 November 1968, Page 2

Subjects Abound For N.Z. Artists

New Zealand artists should portray their country’s people, according to a Dutchbom artist, Els Noordhof, who has not found any shortage of interesting subjects since she came to New Zealand with her husband and four children two years ago. “If artists are looking to their people they are seeing humanity. New Zealanders have been overshadowed by the physical beauty of their countryside.” said Miss Noordhof (Mrs H. W. Smith in private life) in Christchurch yesterday.

She sees plenty of lonely faces, which interest her, here. "Because ,if€ here is more gentle people have remained human. In America, where I lived for 16 years, there is such a competitive spirit faces become stereotype—bland and hardbitten.”

Young people for whom she has a great sympathy, are her favourite portrait subjects. “Here you see young people looking romantic and longing for things, but still very lonely. They seem still quite vulnerable, not quite knowing where they are going.”

Art Degree Els Noordhof trained at the Rijksmuseum Academy in Amsterdam, from which she has a master of fine arts degree. Artistic talent runs in the family and her parents encouraged her studies from an early age. At the age of 12 she won second prise in a drawing contest, and her work was exhibited in “Paris World.”

Her two elder children show artistie inclinations. The oldest boy draws well and amuses his sometimes absentminded mother by sketching witty cartoons when she has neglected to wash his socks or sew a button on his shift. Design appears to be the Held of her 16-year-old daughter. She designs her own

clothes and does screen printing. A visit to her brother, who was studying at Cambridge University, led Els Noordhof to her future husband, who was also at the university. After marrying they went to America where she kept up her interest in art, and illustrated books and taught, while bringing up her family.

English Lecturer Since coming to New Zealand—Mr Smith is a lecturer in English at the University of Otago—she has had more time to concentrate on painting and finds “things begin to cohere for me.” Man against nature is her main theme, and she has found plenty of scope in New Zealand. Many of her works, now being exhibited at Several Arts gallery, depict “hideous buildings against this beautiful landscape." She is fascinated by the contrast between man’s works and nature.

Currently she is working on a portrait of a young girl with her hair up in bright pink rollers, posed against a clear sky. Do New Zealanders get her message? “I haven’t been talking long enough but they are beginning to see what I mean,” she replied. The couple decided to come to New Zealand because “America was getting a bit chaotic", but Els Noordhof does not feel she is in a cultural wasteland. To her, the country's isolation is an artistic blessing and there are enough good New Zealand artists to make life stimulating.

“Left In Peace” “New Zealanders should not be so self conscious about themselves. It’s fine for artistsi to go oversees, but they

should always come back. Here you are left in peace. In America and even in Europe once you are established the commercial pressure is such you must paint in a certain style. “In the big metropolitan centres the atmosphere can corrupt painters. They are not originals any more, but move along with the main stream. Some young artists never find themselves,” she said.

When self criticism in this country was applied to produce higher standards it was all to the good, but it should never be used as an excuse for lack of artistic expression. Her advice to aspiring New Zealand artists—“train yourself.”