ART OF HARRY TOMBS

Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 41, 12 November 1936, Page 13

ART OF HARRY TOMBS

Water-colours, Oils and Aquatints

Catholic in iasle and versatile in medium is the art of Harry Tombs, the Wellington artist, whose work at present figures prominently in the New Zealand Artists’ Group exhibition in the little gallery behind _ the WaiMemorial in Bowen Buildings. Mr. Tombs, who has travelled a great deal, and has a first-hand knowledge of the artistic treasures in most of the leading galleries of the Old World, has a conscience that ever pricks him onward —to do better this year than the year before. He has never submitted work of such uniform high quality as ji water-colourist than is revealed in his one-man exhibition. There is an attractive cleanliness of line and paint, a feeling and a worthy reticence in colour in his water-colours that compel admiration. Anyone could be excused for desiring such paintings as "Tintagel, Cornwall," a beautiful low-set dome of upland paddocks, against a lovely summer sky; or “The City Gate, Bruges,” a wonderful composition comprising the medieval round tower, the old sjtone bridge, and the sedge-grown canal. The subject has been neatly executed in colours that are vivid compared with its companion pictures. Were the worthy burghers of Bruges looking for advertisement here is a painting which would make a most enticing poster. But all artists go to Bruges; so it probably gets all the advertisement it needs gratis from their brushes.

“Storm Over Taupo” is another water-colour which illustrates Mr. Tombs’s diligent progress. Tone values, neutral in shade, make the placid surface of the lake live until it blends, in the deep perspective with the blue hills beyond. “Becalmed, Porirua Harbour,” is a pleasant glimpse of white wings at Golden Gate. “The Red Sheep, Tintagel,” is a charming study of an English laudscape embodying a joke founded on a truism. The sheep in the meadow were red, having just been dipped in some fluid which gave their fleeces “a roseate hue.” “The Haystack, Upminster,” “English Landscape, Upminster,” a characteristic “Street in Bruges,” “Loch Lomond, Scotland,” “Near Lucerne” (a glimpse of crystalline alps from an amethystine tunnel mouth) and “A Southerly in the Strait” are studies worthy of the artist. Mr. Tombs's aquatints also command attention. There is a nice depth and admirable composition in “Wninui Valley,” a deeply-shadowed road between tall trees; “Orongorongo,” a study in lighter tones of a grotesque grove on a gale-swept hillside: “Valley Road. Wninui,” and “The Hill-top.” Mr. Tombs also exhibits a few oil paintings, the best of which is “Camp at Taupo,” which has something of the atmosphere of a vernal glade as it is understood in the New Zealand bush.