‘‘This Painted Land’’, group show
(Henderson Gallery, Central Stories Museum & Gallery, Alexandra)
Also at Central Stories, ‘‘This Painted Land’’ brings together eleven landscape artists creating largescale canvases, opening portals and possibilities, inviting the viewer to step in and walk paths both familiar and imaginative. From sensorial bursts of abstract colour to almost photographic realism, there’s something for everyone here — a mustsee in the Henderson Gallery.
Maurice Middleditch’s Otago Harbour from Highcliff Road captures the verdant peacefulness of low light across the Dunedin hills. Amidst the figurative detail, there’s a characteristic softness to Middleditch’s brush strokes, the faintest blurring of select edges, like a scene taking shape out of memory and preparing to dissolve back into the past.
Debbie Malcolm’s Upper Taieri
River in Maniototo and Julie Greig’s Silvery Morning, from the Creamery Bridge are among a number of standout pieces; both works are so intensely atmospheric and evocative of winter that you almost expect breath to fog and ice to spread across the gallery walls as you approach. Every last blade of frosted grass might be the focal point of the composition, so much care and craft are woven into the creation. Greig introduces a small, valiant glow of sunlight through her overcast sky, but the one hint of warmth in the palette only emphasises the beautiful frozen stillness of the scene.
Neil Driver’s Lammerlaws Outcrop has a similarly serene feel. Driver has a unique ability to utilise colour and subtle tonal shifts to create distinctive textural effects, from a litfromwithin silken sky to the velvety stretch of rolling hills.