Wanaka becomes an abstraction

Sunlight reflecting from the surface of Lake Wanaka or the pattern of summer rain, it's there in Rob Piggott's paintings but he's not bothered if you don't pick it.

The Dunedin artist has an exhibition in the Dunedin Community Gallery, in Princes St, comprising a new series of Wanaka paintings and a series from 1998, called "Daybreak".

"In the end they are abstract paintings. I don't wish to make a painting that is really literal or photographically representative," he says.

"I am happy for anybody to see anything in the painting or respond to it in any way they wish. But in saying that, when I start a painting I do work with an essence or a flavour or a seed of an idea that I put into the painting and I do believe that that does come across."

The "Wanaka Paintings" are based on vivid memories of time spent in the area, Piggott says. Perhaps kayaking across the lake and watching the light interact with the surface of the water.

In Sun Shower, you can see the fallen rain, as it has splashed across a windscreen, he says.

Similarly, in Lake-Light, the lines and limited palette used in the Wanaka series could be an entirely abstract design, or there could be more.

"It is an abstract piece but there is a suggestion or a feeling of being on a lake and the light coming down between the mountains and reflecting on the water."

The oil-pastel and dye "Daybreak" series plays on the interaction between light and dark, where light stands for the known, consciousness, truth, while dark moves on to the canvas as the subconscious, the unknown.

Piggott says people often concentrate on what is in the light, but the universe is mostly darkness. Piggott's exhibition "Summerland" continues until January 20.