Art teachers’ art on show

Press, 22 July 1986, Page 14

Art teachers’ art on show

“Art Teachers’ Art” works by twenty-eight art teachers, in the C.S.A. Gallery until July 27. Reviewed by Pat Unger.

The public of Christchurch can rest easy, any doubt they may have harboured about the ad-vance-guard of art education instructing their young is dispelled in “Art Teachers’ Art.”

The “range of values that are being expressed in art teaching today” won't rock any boat. In the 66 works exhibited, there are no hints of following new or reckless styles into uncharted waters, no suggestion of abandonment to new techniques and no glimpse of new horizons.

The works address themselves, very properly, to painterly and surface concerns and not uncharted adventures, thus maintaining visual disciplines.

Like all who work in creative areas, painters’ preoccupation with image, style and technique on a two-dimensional surface, implying three dimensions, find enough problems to be tackled and in this exhibition extablished conventions point the way to solutions.

With some innovation, Mark Lander works with clay pastels on made paper in a refreshing way; his framed oils painted to look free-hanging are pleasing both in concept and in surface treatment. Colour and texture unite these works, even allowing for the slightly bizare “Life” splashed on two of them.

“Alignmnet of Painted Stone” a woodcut-collage by Kathy Anderson, is also interesting. She disperses her image of black-cut line, space and

scattered, colour over the surface for her work well. Glenys' Parry’s photographic study of "Mary O’Malley” makes good use of overlapping image and varied focus to create a multi-faceted portrait that is worth study.

A didactic element is provided by Trevor Moffit’s series of four paintings. They show how the solo man cleans and works for his comforts and rewards. As usual, Moffitt, by his unique imagery and competence with paint makes this part of the gallery an extension of his presence. With skilled technique, images that are kept direct, canvases not too laden with painterly information and any messages kept under strict control, Moffit charts his own course.

Many of these artists show their association with the Canterbury School of Painting by their exploration of the

painterly brushstroke. 5 Oils on Steinbach give a private view of Catherine Brough’s entangled willows and their reflections in water. By manipulating brushmarks that are dragged over underpainting and then scratched and scribbled into, she succeeds in just controlling Nature’s chaos and her own spontaneity. By a balance of contrivances that hold her composition together, she invites viewers to share her imagery, in works that are of modest scale, but successful.

James Bruce, also using bold paint over layered underpaint, animates his surfaces resulting in at best pleasing work with resolved design elements, at worst curious shapes that brazen it out under their coats of high glaze. No. 13 is a particularly good example of stylistic ploys used to create balance, producing a work of

competence. - < In Roses Grey’s .abstracts, colour controls composition. The small work No. 26 “Body Talk III,” by supressing the frame’s presence, and by maintaining tension between colour and tone, is an excellent exampled of contrived elements in harmony. However, the larger the works, the less the control. Dark linear marks, distracting brushstrokes in different directions, colour that wavers between hue arid mud suggest skirmishes,/rind in No. 29 a limited war. - The public of; 'Christchurch should see this exhibition. They will meet old friends and new, and the enthusiasm of, the contributors is enjoyable. If doubt lingers, the immpeccable photorealism of Mike; Eaton’s “Avoca, Canterbury High Country” will silence any critics from the traditional schools of art.