‘‘Scape’’, Jo St Baker
(The Artist’s Room)
JO ST BAKER has been largely absent from the Dunedin art scene for the past few years, during which she was based in Queensland. Her welcome return to the city, and to her old haunts of St Clair and St Kilda along its southern coast, are celebrated in the exhibition ‘‘Scape’’ at The Artist’s Room.
St Baker has employed the strong colours of acrylic well in the creation of these works on paper. Their slightly exaggerated nature adds a slight sense of unreality to the scenes, yet also makes the viewer perceive them as if the city is sitting in the warm glow of a summer’s evening. For several views of the central city, such as City Scape and Otepoti, the artist has used the lovely conceit of picturing the scene as through her studio’s rooftop window, creating a slight trompe l’oeil feel.
In the coastal scenes, it is the horizon which defines the scenes, dividing the images between sky and sea. A similar dividing line is used between sky and townscape in Blue
Roads, Otepoti and The Hydro. In all of these works, this halving, coupled with a deliberate emphasis on items in the near foreground, adds a strong and effective sense of depth to the images.