Art seen: July 27

Seismic Tides (detail), by Paul McLachlan.

(Milford Gallery)

Paul McLachlan’s paintings, now on display at Milford Gallery, are remarkable in both their appearance and in the methods used to create them.

Created through a combination of drawing, thickly layered paint and a digital engraving process, the pieces have a look reminiscent of the rich gilt-embossed leather of weighty antique books. Strong, even layers of paint are stripped back by a digital process, turning painted material into magnificent and complex print-like structures. The underlying substrates of bright yellow and orange hues shine through the scores created in the upper surfaces, giving the works an inner light and a glow like burnished metal. Subtle shifts in the colours, and their reflected interplay make the works appear to shift and evolve with changes in the light.

Not only is this process impressive, but so too are the structures and designs of the paintings themselves. McLachlan creates allegorical scenes in which the crystal lattices and heavenly structures of the natural world are revealed. The trees and waves become arched cathedrals of light, the native birds which inhabit them the guardians of some eternal secret. It is as if the clouds which pass for our limited grasp of reality have been swept aside to reveal the true nature of existence.

The Empress’s New Clothes, by Sue Syme.

(The Artist’s Room)

The Artist’s Room is hosting a joint exhibition by Donna Demente and Sue Syme. The works of the two artists sit alongside each other uneasily, complementing each other but producing odd narratives between Demente’s intensely watching portraits and Syme’s often outlandish group scenes.

Demente is surely Otago’s queen of eyes. Her portraits are each magnificently and uniquely framed, passive yet watchfully gazing out from within their protective cases, a Mona Lisa smile frozen enigmatically on the lips, or face reduced to just the icy gaze of close-cropped eyes. The works have a deliberate and distinct Renaissance (or, in the case of Patience, Pre-Raphaelite) feel, adding to the impression that these are secular church icons, escaped from their cathedral to cast their judgemental views on the world.

The works, in this case, are seemingly in judgement over the sensual — and occasionally debauched — group scenes in Sue Syme’s art. Syme, using colour more frequently than has previously been common in her work, presents a garden of earthly delights in which passionate groups lie entangled among the heady blooms. The images, evoking New Zealand artists from Jeffrey Harris to Richard Killeen, are fascinating. Impressive yet enigmatic, their frenzied activity simultaneously invites and repels.

Portrait, by Pauline Bellamy.

(Bellamys Gallery)

"In Situ", the latest show from Pauline Bellamy at Bellamys Gallery, is an exhibition of two halves.

A series of nine of the artist’s impressionistic landscapes, all recent work, decorate one wall of the gallery. Opposite them sits a substantial array of about 30 portraits of Otago Peninsula residents, mostly painted about 16 years ago but never exhibited en masse at the gallery.

The landscapes beautifully capture moments of time and space, whether it be in the brooding storm clouds of Dreamy Allans Beach or the reflected and refracted waters of Te Rotopāteke from Harbour. The elements of earth, air and water are summoned in these works, the solidity of the sea-lapped land sitting firm under the wind-bent macrocarpas.

The portraits are a different matter entirely. Largely captured with a deliberate, speedy, sketch-like touch, these show not the solidity of the sitters but rather their ever-changing character and personality. In a glance or a half-caught smile, the inner life of these peninsula residents is nicely drawn to the surface, the moment and the fleeting expression captured excellently. Not all of the images appear flattering at first sight, but all grasp something of the inner essence of the people, their resilience, their humour and the intensity of their being.

By James Dignan