Artists reflect on natural world
Beauty in nature often has a profound effect on the senses, opening a gateway from the outside world to the inner, tinged with feelings of awe, wonder and amazement.
The inspiration that results is captured in a mesmerising new exhibition at Bryce Gallery, on display until next Tuesday.
‘‘Nature Speaks’’ features works by well-known artists Min Kim, Jamie Stewart, Craig Fletcher and Galina Kim, who collectively provide a rich portrait of the subtle and unsentimental forces which lend the natural world such mystique.
Bold colours, flashes of light and alert eyes find a place beside slow rising mists and playful wild birds. Overall, warmth and accessibility prevails.
Stewart, known for large, sweeping vistas of the New Zealand outdoors, offers a series of dramatic and inspiring works with scenes of deep forest and mountains that are suggestive of world-building on the grandest scale.
At the other end of the spectrum, the joyous touch of Galina Kim is evident in brightly coloured paintings of grapes, flowers and a rainbow of flax leaves among which a tui perches.
Fletcher also showcases the tui, this time in a pair of paintings that remind of the bonding inherent in life, as the birds share each others company on a single twig.
Ceramic sculptures and jewellery by Fletcher also feature in the exhibition.
Min Kim, meanwhile, the owner of Bryce Gallery, produces some of the display’s most innovative pieces to reinforce her position as one of Christchurch’s most exciting artists.
Heavily textured oil paintings and eye-catching watercolours are produced in her characteristic impressionist style using light to its full advantage.
Min regularly shares her skills through art classes at the Riccarton gallery. A watercolour workshop this weekend will be followed by drawing workshop on April 14-15.
Stewart has also been hosting classes at Bryce Gallery this year. His next is a four-day workshop on using oil paints for forest scenes, to be held April 26-29.
With well-lit, flowing rooms in what used to be a showhome, Bryce Gallery has one of Christchurch’s largest collections of high-end contemporary art.
Selected from New Zealand’s top established and emerging artists, the collection includes more than 100 works in storage which are regularly rotated to ensure there is always something fresh on the walls.
Bryce Gallery is open weekdays 10am-5pm, Saturdays 10am-4pm and Sundays 11am-4pm on corner of Riccarton Rd and Paeroa St, Riccarton. Phone 03 348 0064, find them on Facebook, or visit brycegallery.co.nz.