A NEW ZEALAND ARTIST.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19529, 11 July 1925, Page 23

A NEW ZEALAND ARTIST.

LANDSCAPE IMPRESSIONISM. (Fbom Otm Own CoimEapoNDwr.l LONDON, June 2. Mr Owen Merton,, previously of Christchurch, has an exhibition of his water colours at tho Leicester Gallories. It is a good many years since this artist was in London, hat since 1918 ho has shown hia pictures in a number of the Now Tork galleries. Prom 1911 to 1914 Mr Merton was a student of Mr P. Tudor-Hart, to whom he acknowledges hia indebtedness. It ia interesting to note the trend of development in Mr Merton’s work. When he first exhibited some 13 years ago he was noted for great wealth and of detail. To-day. his methods are entirely different. His gift seems to lie in the power to suggest a scone with the minimum of linos and wash. He uses the primary colours only, and thus gets a bright and refreehing effect. It comes to this: Without tho name of the picture it would bo difficult to know what it was all about. Having the name of the picture, and half shutting the eyes at a distance, the conviction is borne home on one that the artist has really obtained a remarkable reproduction of what would really bo seen by a sympathetic spectator whose appreciation of the scene is based on tho general impression rather than the details. Mr Merton has been for two years in tho South of Prance and Algeria, and ho has been able to make much of the high lights and sunshine of those parts of the world. In his work ho makes full use of tho whito of the paper he paints on. There are largo spaces on which he has not placed his brush, but they are wonderfully significant. The eye does the work he appears to ignore. The 25 water colours ho is showing deal with such subjects as “ A North African Garden,'" ” The Cathedral, Beziers," “ Street with Shadows,” and "Arabs and Trees.” “Prom an almost pre-Eaphaelite precision," says the Morning Post, commenting on Mr Mierton’s work, “ he has freed his eye and hand to a wondering outlook and looseness of touch not always discriminating, but the general result is an illusion of spontaneity and buoyancy of spirit. Examined separately, however, too many of the scenes seem to be dissolving or in a dynamic condition on the verge of chaos. In his static moods, when Mr Merton searches more intimately for basic structure, he produces fascinating drawings.” “Mr Owen Merton, says Tho Times, ” shows water-colours which for convenience may be described as in the manner of Cezanne. That is to say, they are compositions in landscape forms, of which tho shapes, dimensions, and relations are suggested by light washes of colour. It is a difficult kind of art. and Mr Merton manages it with considerable success.” In the opinion of Mr P. Rutter (Sunday Times), Mr Merton’s ’ slight, delicate watercolours reveal the influence of Cezanne and Matisse. The extreme sketchiness of his work may be unsatisfying to some, but Mr Merton’s purpose is to suggest, and not to realise. His ethereal sense of colour is beautifully exhibited in ‘ Collioure; Evening ’ (23), with its shimmer of colour in the water, while the effectively piled up mass of ‘ Cathedral Prom the River, Beziers ’ (24), proves that his severe economy of treatment is not inconsistent with an appreciation of volumes, design, and construction.’’