‘Recent Works’ and ‘S.I. Landscapes’

Press, 23 September 1988, Page 14

‘Recent Works’ and ‘S.I. Landscapes’

review

‘Recent Works,” by Natham Crossan and Lorraine de Vorms, at the Print Room; “South Island Landscapes,” by Catherine Brough in the Canaday Gallery at the C.S.A., until September 25. Reviewed by Pat Unger. Since their shared exhibition last year, Lorraine de Vorms has gained a sense of sureness in her art skills and Natham Crossan has found a degree of freedom within the tighter confines of print-making. For a young artist, de Vorms’ lino-cut flower studies and drawn torsos show competent control of media. Her decorative mark and tone, her charcoal shade and line are vigorous but they are also subdued to the needs of over-all composition. Edge “happenings” and accidental events are neither sought for their own sake nor to sensationalise the work. She maintains throughout a strong sense of the appropriate in both her spectacular flower works and

her elegantly massive torsos. They are appealing, within the confines of conventionally conceived, art-making. In some respects, Crossan works in the opposite way. His objects are presented in visually simple composition but in such a way as to make use of random effects and decorative spinoffs from the printing process. Stylised laundry, kitchen, hall, bathroom and bedroom areas are textured by manipulation of materials and methods to make otherwise . flat planes of inked surfaces look marbled. This stippling lessens formality, enlivens composition and gives room to experiment. It also tempts the artist to become on occasion pre-

occupied with contrivances that result in a sparkle effect which detracts from the over-all visual needs of his printed images. Downstairs are the landscapes of Catherine Brough. Stylistically her works sit somewhere between free-flowing spontaneity and rehearsed effect. Her landscapes, a search for “essential form” using a “brushstroke that has its own identity,” are painted with lively gusto. In some, Brough’s schema of natural disorder is convincing. In others, whether “close-ups or distant perspectives,” instead of grand, messy insightfulness there is a tentative, imitative look. The principles of contrasting colour and realism-through-abstraction are compromised. Gestured brush stroke and colour sensation are touched up to look like gesture and sensation. It emphasises the difficulty of sustaining what she calls the “indefinable” in this style of landscape painting.