Harris’s ‘New Works’ ‘real’ art

Press, 7 December 1988, Page 16

Harris’s ‘New Works’ ‘real’ art

“New Works in acrylic, watercolour and pencil, by Steve Harris, at the Bealey Gallery until December 9. Reviewed by Pat Unger. Steve Harris’s work at the Bealey Gallery is easily identified as what "real” art should look like. His acrylic paintings of a decoy duck, railway waggons and tulips are intolerably true to life. Their realism is not that of a continuum from coming into being followed by a spectacular prime and then a softening decay. They have the reality of a concrete and everlasting perfection, captured by an artist who is well versed in the machine-like precision of eye-hand co-ordination. The shine on skins in “Still Life, Red Fruit” is without fault, as are the decoy’s surface markings and the tulips’ petals. Their photographic presence is heightened by artistic backgrounds that surround and envelop their subjects in sympathetic tonal accommodations. The watercolour paintings have a more crafted and human look, as watercolour fulfils its unique and charming role and images return to the mortal realm of everyday experience. Washes