NEW ZEALAND ARTIST.

Otago Witness, Issue 3714, 19 May 1925, Page 33

NEW ZEALAND ARTIST.

MR R S. iIELLABY’S EXHIBITION. (From Ou.b Own Correspondent.) LONDON, April 7. Mr R. S. llellaby has not long returned from a trip to New Zealand and the South Sea Islands, and it is evident from an exhibition of ins pictures now in progress at Walker’s Galleries that his time was well occupied. On this occasion he is showing seventy paintings. Of these 13 are of New Zealand scenery, 20 of Samoan, 23 view's in Sussex, and the remainder Italian scenery. Ten of the paintings ore in water-colour, the rest oils. Rye, Winchelsea, and round about the Romney Marshes are favourite places for English artists, and Mr Hellaby has done justice to the picturesque scenery by the sea ooast and inlands. His most am biticus work -n this set is a large canvas of Rye, taken from Cadborough. The artist has thoroughly adapted his talent to the garish colouring of Samoa and his oollection of beach, village, and bush scenes are something unusual in Bond street. “Levuka Beach,” “On the Beach,” “Tamavua Village,” and “On the Road,’ are among the best of this group, though two small pictures showing the crimson poinsettia 9 and the red tresoenas are particularly striking. One must admit that the New Zealand scenes are painted with the sympathy and understanding that only a New Zealander can possess. "The Clear Waters of Hamurana” is a successful and ambitious effort to portray this remarkable stream. When one considers that the artist had to deal with the stream from the points of view of its surface and its many-coloured bed, and had to indicate the colour of the water besides the reflected light from the sky, it will be seen that he had in jncredibly difficult task. Several well-known London artists have expressed their appreciation of this painting, and Mr Hellaby himself is justifiably satisfied with it. “The Inferno, Mount. Tarawera,” is not a pleasant subject, but ; t is a good painting, and it gives a remarkably fine impression of this terrible part of the earth’s surface. “Silica at Whakarewarewa” is another canvas de voted to the presentation of the uncanny, and this, with “The Inferno,” is naturally attracting a good deal of notice among the public. A view of Aratiatia Rapids was one of the first pictures to find a buyer, and the little red ticket appeared on several other New Zealand scenos on the first, day. A delightful little water-colour, “The Pohutukawa Tree," will certainly find a ready buyer. Other New Zealand subjects are mountain scenes about the Hermitage, and landscape north of Auck land. LONDON APPRECIATION. The art critic of The Times describes Mr Ileilaby’s pictures as a distinct exception to the rule that an artist’s mastery of his craft is generally in inverse ratio to his travels. They do not undervalue novelty in subject matter, but they would be good landscape paintings anywhere; broadly seen, well composed, true in values, and cleanly and directly handled. Mr Hellaby’s sensibility to local atmosphere is well seen on comparing three of his most important pictures, “Sussex Landscape,” “Silica at Whakarewarewa, ’ the white deposit of’ the river beiifg pretty much like snow in its reaction to the skv, and “On the Beach,” in the South -Sea Islands. These three pictures have similar artistic qualities, but the wide geograpuical range in their subjects would be evident in the quality of the light alone. Other particularly good studies are “Arun River at Amberley,” “New Zealand Landscape," and “At Londoni, Fiji.” ’This is an exhibition which can bo looked at both ways—as an interesting record of far-off scenos and conditions, and as a collection of well-pointed landscape. Most of them are in oils, but there are a few watercqlours of Sussex to show Mr Hellaby’s equal command of that medium. The Morning Post likes his northern scenes better tnan his Pacific landscapes.