‘‘Beyond Pattern’’, Terry Fitzgibbon
(Pea Sea Art)
TERRY FITZGIBBON is a multifaceted talent. Although exhibiting here as an artist, he is perhaps better known as a writer and illustrator of children’s books. Some of the styles and subjects of this vocation clearly spill through into the art on display at Pea Sea Art.
The works, limitededition prints, largely comprise two themes: New Zealand shoreline scenes and more abstract works, several of them using traditional Maori and Pacifica motifs. There are a handful of works which do not fit within either of these main themes, notably the fantasyinspired Estralita Dance and strong, stampshaped Plasticfree Pacific.
Flying birds are a frequent element in the shoreline images, which are largely created in a deliberately simplified style and sureness of line which reveal the artist’s illustrator origins. These works are tranquil, and largely created in pastel tones. Only occasionally, in works such as Tui in Paradise and Kereru Over Otago Peninsula, are the colours ramped up to suggest more dynamism.
Many of the intriguing semiabstract works use the circular form to good purpose. Tint and shade are also well used to suggest a threedimensionality to Manapou (Sustaining life) and Kowhaiwhai. The strong colours of Summer Swirl and subtle depths of Pitau (Fresh fronds) are also pleasing.