Bigpa in tings in one-man show

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32663, 20 July 1971, Page 10

Bigpa in tings in one-man show

A selection of large paintings some of them as much as Bft high—will form the backbone of a one-man exhibition to be opened in the C.S.A. gallery this week by the Blenheim artist, John Parker. Mr Parker, an honours

graduate of the Canterbury University School of Art who now teaches at Marlborough Girls’ College, has had a previous one-man show in Christchurch, but

> this will be the first time his ; paintings have been seen ; here for a couple of years. ' He will leave Blenheim on ! Wednesday morning by road 1 with the paintings and will i spend Thursday and Friday ‘ setting them up in the gal- • lery. The private opening l will be on Saturday night, and the exhibition will be open to the public for two s weeks from Sunday.

Mr Parker describes his paintings as “evocative but sombre,” and qualifies this by adding that they have textural and graphic interest. “I am far more tentative with colour than I am graphically,” he said. “In the latter sphere I am fairly experimental.” Not all Mr Parker’s paintings are Bft high, but all of them are large by commonly accepted standards. The smallest in this exhibition will measure sft by 4ft. Mr Parker says he realises that this sheer size affects the saleability of his works, but is not prepared to compromise over it. “I deliberately paint very large works,” he says. “I like big things, and I like working on this scale.” In any case, he adds, it is a fallacy that big paintings cannot be hung in small houses. Often they can be very effective. This show will be Mr Parker’s fourth one-man exhibition, two of the others having been exhibitions of drawings on the West Coast and in Nelson. He has also been in three-man and fourman shows, including one in the Central Gallery, Wellington. His paintings have also been included in the exhibition of paintings by “Young Contemporaries” in the Auckland City Art Gallery.