Art seen: 11 August

Gully Raker, by Simon Edwards.

(Milford Galleries, Queenstown)

Ominous, black-edged clouds roll overhead, sinking down through the hills to meet the mist rising from the land, casting shadows over a craggy, moody world. Limited sunlight falls, and where the light does break through, it serves to highlight the darkness rather than cast warmth. With no sign of human life and the terrain jagged and dangerous, there is a sense of isolation and treachery, some scenes almost post-apocalyptic. Simon Edwards’ landscapes are always intensely atmospheric, deceptively effortless in his luxurious balance and blending of colour, often undergoing a tonal shift from chaos to serenity in one composition.

In his latest collection "Prospector", Edwards strips away the lush blues, greens, and ethereal rainbow touches of recent works, focusing instead on a cool-toned palette of browns, greys, and black. While those past works evoked a sense of an untouched paradise, a land before the advent of human progress and destruction, these scenes feel very much like the aftermath.

As well as drawing inspiration from the iconic goldmining lands of Central Otago, the title references the creative process itself, with Edwards applying layers of paint, then stripping it back, allowing it to reveal new patterns and textures. In the artist’s view, painting itself thus becomes a form of prospecting, scoping out the land, digging and delving into the subject and medium, and allowing the viewer to find the treasure within.

More Hindrance Than Help, by Jane Shriffer.

(Gallery Thirty Three, Wanaka)

Art takes countless forms, speaks of endless stories in infinite voices, but the common thread of successful artistry is the ability to both express and evoke emotion. That invisible connection between creator and audience is one of the most powerful human forces; it can’t be contained by distance, time, or even mortality. Even the most fleeting feeling, captured in paint and ink, could resonate with another soul across the world, hundreds of years after the artist’s own lifetime. That communication of passion, anger, love, despair—a thousand different nuances of human existence and individual experience—is the heart of much abstract art, and the reason Jane Shriffer’s work resonates with so many.

Each Shriffer canvas is a map of its creation, the strokes of her palette knife slow and thoughtful in one area, fast and furious in another. She works very much in the moment, painting out her day, her mood, reacting to the events unfolding around her and within. Somehow the compositions are both fully abstract and oddly recognisable, as if a scene has dissolved into a burst of confetti, and as the pieces settle, your vision will clear and those blocks of green, blue, pink, and red will resolve into solid figures and structures. There’s a happiness to Shriffer’s work, a fundamental joy—even in pieces like Patience is Waning, where moody dark purples and blues offer a warning note of an impending storm—that is contagious and irresistible.

Voluptuous, by Janette Cervin.

(Gallery Thirty Three, Wanaka)

Few New Zealand artists offer such immersive escapism and beauty as Janette Cervin. Painted in infinite detail on layer after layer of resin, her imagery has incredible visual depth, acting like a portal into the world within, making you feel you could reach out and touch soft, shimmering petals and feathers. Thematically, the works tend to be divided into the floral studies and the bird scenes, the latter surrounded by lush forest, branches parting to reveal verdant life beyond. Every time you come back to a piece, you’ll see another tiny detail you missed before—a fluttering butterfly in an innermost layer, or a textural brush of gold inside a petal, like scattered pollen. The native birds and plants are familiar, and so evocative that you can almost hear the rival bird songs and whispering of the leaves, yet the effect is also fantastical and dreamlike.

Cervin’s past hydrangea studies have been among her most striking works, painted with the most incredible intensity of colour, a shift between dark and light so effective that the composition literally glows, revisited in this collection with the glorious Voluptuous and aptly titled Enchantment. Both pieces employ Cervin’s signature technique of juxtaposing photorealistic blooms with more sketched-in flowers, as if she’s drawn among the scene with a glowing pen, bringing in an ethereal, ghostly quality. Another quiet favourite from the collection is the romantic Celebrate, with its soft delicacy, misty tones, and shadowy leaves drifting away like fairy wings.