NEW ZEALAND LANDSCAPES.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20448, 30 June 1928, Page 4

NEW ZEALAND LANDSCAPES.

MR AND MRS R. HIPKINS’S WORK EXHIBITION IN LONDON. (From Our Own Correspondent.) LONDON, May 10. Mr Roland Hipkins, art master of the Napier Technical College, and Mrs Hipkins, arrived from New Zealand a fortnight ago on a year’s leave of absence. They brought with them a number of landscape paintings they had done in the Dominion, and they have been very fortunate in being able to arrange an exhibition of these at the Abbey Galleries so soon after coming to London. The exhibition was opened this afternoon, and it will be interesting to read what the London critics have to say of scenery with which they are unfamiliar. The paintings of the two artists are intermingled. Mr Hipkins shows 34 and Mrs Hipkins (under the brush name of “ Jenny Campbell ”) shows 23. Doubtless, many art lovers in the Dominion are familiar with Mr Hipkins’s pictures, and a number of those shown here have already been seen in New Zealand. The interest of the exhibition stems to lie in the interpretation of New Zealand landscape by an artist who has_ come as a stranger to the country. While choosing scenes which are typically New Zealand, he seems to have interpreted them in a way which should please the English people. In doing so, perhaps, he misses something that only a New Zealander of many years’ standing can see in his native hills and valleys. Both Mr and Mrs Hipkins seem to have evaded bush scenes. Although they have attempted them they have probably not yet been satisfied with their efforts. A New Zealander, on entering the exhibition, might be inclined to exclaim: “But this not my country!” It is this slightly modern touch brought to the interpretation of familiar scenes that seems strange to him. But he will admit that the compositions are all good. As pictures, they are excellent, though the New Zealander feels that the artist has seen his beloved, country through eyes that have not.yet grasped the mystery of the place. FROM THE ENGLISH POINT OF VIEW. On the other hand, the English critic will, undoubtedly, see something altof ether different from what he is used to. fe will hardly believe the clear atmosphere that is depicted, and be will have grave doubts of the distances shown in the pictures. The tendency of the times is to choose pictures which gives a feeling of freedom and space, for most people in these days are living in bouses much smaller than they were used to. Mr Hipkins has produced this aspect of space and freedom, and his works should be appreciated on this side of the world. On the other band, people generally desire a landscape with which they are familiar. Among the best of the works are “Waikato River, sTaupo,” "The Champagne Pool” (an oil painting), “Mountain Sunshine-—Lake Wakatipu” (an oil j painting), “Jellicoe Point, Lake Taupo,” ( “ Sheep Country, Waimarama,” and ! “Appley Station, Rissington.” Mrs Hipkins has done all her work in gouache, a medium which suits the impressionist style. Her portrait of her husband in oil colours is a more ambitious work. After the exhibition Mr and Mrs Hipkins intended to proceed on'a sketching tour of Eugland and on the Continent.