Exhibition Of Paintings By W.A. Sutton

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32344, 9 July 1970, Page 6

Exhibition Of Paintings By W.A. Sutton

The Christchurch artist W. A. Sutton exhibits 18 paintings in a one-man exhibition in the Stewart Mair Gallery of the Canterbury Society of Arts. W. A. Sutton emerged more than 20 years ago as a painter of considerable importance in the romantic movement then developing in New Zealand painting. He is also a regional painter in that his concern with the landscape has been specifically Canterbury landscape and to this extent his present work shows no deviation from this jbjective, although certain stylistic trends have affected Hs approach to painting.

Numbers 1. 2 and 3 deal •vith three of the four seasons, using an identical view>oint of the Port Hills in tach work. In each of these ■aintings Sutton convincingly elates sky and land with sureal clarity. Number 3 “Sumtier,” is distinguished by a ireathless warmth while in lumber 2, “Spring." green hadows herald the new seaon's growth. Cloud formations in Spring” cast out tentacles in he sky that mirror the shalows in the hills, making a iramatic perspective. “Winer” is grey and still, as the] and sleeps. Grasses are the subject of I i series of six paintings num-! uered 4 to 9. In these Sutton has relied on a heavily textured ground overlaid with thin glazes of colour. The heavy grounds however, defeat his glazing efforts, dominating the paint with a texture that becomes mechanical and lacking the subtlety he is capable of. Number 10 “Pastoral, Autumn” is the only figure I

painting in the exhibition. The figure in this painting is of a young man standing in the left foreground of a Port ! Hills landscape. The figure is beautifully painted in crisp ’detail, the landscape is equal (

|in quality to “The Four Seai sons" series, but the two do not relate. This may be intentional, a |symbolic statement on mans! j short tenure of this land. I Six paintings, numbers 11 ! to 17 called “Landscape Elements” deal with convex light reflecting shapes and concave shadow harbouring shapes. These are Sutton's richest statements in colour, moving' through soft browns, yellows, oranges and greys, but are indeterminate, being of any! specific aspect of land form. , The exhibition will remain open until July 17. —G.T.M. 1