Hokitika landscape artist

Press, 15 June 1978, Page 25

Hokitika landscape artist

To the Hokitika artist Brent Trolle, the next painting is always going to be the best one. “I’m never really satisfied,” he says, and if he is not pleased with a painting it doesn’t leave his studio, no matter what he is offered. Trolle's artistic integrity is impressive in an age when many people are after quick financial returns for their efforts. But, for him, all worthwhile paintings have soul. “To paint successfully, you have to love what you paint," he says. His impressive oil and watercolour landscapes show how well he combines this dedication with talent. Thirty year-old Brent Trolle has had no formal art training. Born in Wellington and educated in Christchurch, he began landscape painting on the Canterbury Plains with his father when he was six. Mr Trolle senior has done “a terrific amount of work,” and from him his son learnt the techniques

of painting. And even though he is now supporting himself, his wife Grace, their two small children, and two Siamese cats on the proceeds of his painting, Brent Trolle cannot regard it as just a job. “It’s something I love,” he says, “and if you’re keen on painting, you can’t leave it alone.” One senses that successful or not, he would keep pouring his heart out onto canvas. Quality materials Full-time painting is an expensive business these days. Brent Trolle worked exclusively in oils until a year ago, when he began to dabble in water-colours. He now finds, unlike most other artists, this last demanding medium to be the easier, and he has begun to use it professionally. (Acrylic paint he eschews as having “no life.”) He points out that it is becoming progrssively difficult to use oils on high quality materials. For an amateur it must be ■’’.most impossible, be feels. People pay “a fair Trolle wants to use the best available materials. The financial returns for Trolle’s paintings are substantial, but a thrifty inclination on the part of he and his wife also helps. They could be said to be living off the land to some extent, says a smiling Grace Trolle. They gather local blackberries, catch flounders and whitebait in the Hokitika River, shoot their own venison and gather firewood from the beach. (Most of the time her husband was being interviewed, Grace Trolle was carving up a side of beef ready for the freezer.) This is not Scottish thrift she explains, in fact their surname comes from her husband’s Danish grandfather. Exhibitions Brent Trolle’s response to the beauties of the West Coast has not always been as an artist. For two and a half years he was a Westland Nat-

ional Park ranger, which further developed his feeling for country. He also enjoys jade hunting — a useful excuse when he wants to leave his wife to cope with a houseful of noisy prospective buyers. In 1973, Brent and Grace Trolle visited the United States on a painting and selling trip. Successful exhibitions were held in California, Texas, Canada and Nuie Island, and enthusiastic sightseers snapped up newly-com-pleted paintings in American national parks. Trolle has also had eight New Zealand exhibitions, something he describes as “terribly demanding,” and having unpredictable financial returns. A lot of the proceeds go on galleries and materials. “In America,” says Brent Trolle, “more than anything, all artists accept the work of their fellow artists.” They accept the paintings as personal declarations. In New Zealand, the situation is not so happy. “The New Zealand public don’t accept the moderns, and some of the modems have become intolerant of the traditionalists.” He feels that this creates a very sad artistic atmosphere.

Professional New Zealand critics too, he says, do not often offer constructive comments. The attitudes can be very disjeartening to hard-working artists. A’eu l studio “Success is selling a painting to a sawmiller, or someone who does not usually appreciate art forms,” says Trolle. A big percentage of his work is sold overseas, but a selling venue has been a problem since he began full-time painting. For eighteen months the Trolles had a small gallery in Hokitika and were “overcome with people.” Since then they have sold from their pleasant older-style house on a hili above the town, (on one occasion they had a group of 83 tourists through the house), but Trolle is currently working on the concrete foundations of what will be a large studio/garage complex. This they hope will give visitors comfortable viewing, and the Trolle family a more peaceful life. The possibilities for painting in Westland are “limitless,” says Brent Trolle — Punakaiki and

Meybelle Bay for drama, and the inland valleys for atmosphere. The latter, he says, are especially evocative in the early morning with the mist lifting off the peaks. Otherartists He has had to work out his own reaction to the unique feeling of the Coast, and pays a tribute to other West Coast artists such as Dusty Rhodes and Rod Leonard, but says that too few artists are willing to tackle this landscape that lacks “high-key colour.” (Trolle tackles his work with these colours on his palette — cadmium yellow, cobalt blue, alizarin crimson, cadmium red, and white. He never uses black.) Trolle says he owes his development as an artist to the West Coast. Although ther is no organisation comparable to the Canterbury Society of Arts, he feels it will come in the future. The scene is an active one. As well as painting, jade and greenstone jewel--1 e r y-making, pottery, leathercraft, spinning and weaving, and tourist knitting are all expanding. “All forms of the arts are here now, and are taking

a foothold,” says Trolle. One fellow artist whom Brent Trolle admires is Austen Deans of Peel Forest, Canterbury. The two men have painted and exhibited together. “I can’t speak highly enough of him,” says Trolle. ‘‘His sheer mastery of watercolour is incredible, and I would class him as New Zealand’s best in this field.” Over all, Brent and Grace Trolle are well content with their little corner of the West Coast. “We feel lucky to be able to do what we enjoy so much.”