Art seen

<i>Magdalena at French Farm,</i> by Jeffrey Harris.

An exhibition featuring just four paintings may not sound substantial, but when those works are new Jeffrey Harris paintings the exhibition, though small, becomes notable.

Three of the paintings on display at Brett McDowell's Gallery show the artist's daughter, standing in the lush countryside of the artist's parents' Canterbury farm. Two of these works are clearly closely related, and their posing of the girl against the silk-like folds of the South Island hills shows a deep connection between the artist and the land. They also share common ground with other notable New Zealand art, with echoes ranging from Rita Angus to Robin White and, especially, a bond with Michael Smither's Taranaki images.

A feature which sets this exhibition apart is the fourth work.

This large family group has been in the process of creation for not years but decades. Visitors to the artist's studio may well have seen it, unfinished but growing, since the 1970s. Its completion marks a significant milestone for the artist - the end of a lengthy journey.

The works are crisp, clear and confident, and - strange though it may seem to say such about such an experienced artist deep into his career - Harris' work still continues to improve and grow.

<i>Hanging Ellipses</i>, by John Paxie.

At Mint Gallery, John Paxie displays his combination of experimentation and humour in an array of different ceramic works.

Paxie is perhaps best known for his ellipses - deceptively hard ceramic works that have the soft or malleable appearance of skeins of wool or car inner tubes. These are represented in this exhibition by a series of hanging ellipses and two sets of standing coloured forms, their oblateness implying the effects of gravity on a soft surface. The hanging works are alternately glazed and unglazed, producing a pleasing rhythm, and the standing works are, unusually for ceramics, coated in bright primary-coloured acrylic paint.

Also on display are several cup and pot forms. Here, the effects of a deliberately misheated kiln have produced further ''soft'' warping. One standing sculpture, Friendship, has a form reminiscent of an ancient Greek warrior's full-face helmet, an effect humorously amplified by the appending of a cap from the Athens Olympic Games.

A wall hanging of some hundred or more looped shapes completes the exhibition. Based on the artist's initialled signature, the pieces become semi-abstract but can also be read as a collection of misshapen phallic forms. This becomes a sly statement on a male-centred world which tends to reduce or restrict the impact of women.

Detail from <i>Study</i>, by Blair Kennedy.

John Paxie is also among the wealth of artists in a debut exhibition for the new Flourish Gallery.

The gallery and studio, that of artist Sarah Flourish (formerly Sarah McKay), is in a large white villa at the Shiel Hill end of Musselburgh Rise. Flourish hopes to hold regular group and invitational shows at this venue, and if this debut exhibition is anything to go by, they should be diverse and entertaining. More than 40 artists have art in this display, which spills across several rooms and features more than 100 two- and three-dimensional works.

Sarah Flourish herself is well-represented in the pieces, but many other artists deserve mention, from established artists (such as Pauline Bellamy and Geoff Williams) through to less well-known names.

Many of the works are worthy of note, including stonework by Julian Duncan and Manu Berry, found-object sculpture by Gavin Ashworth, and abstract paintings by Tony Tarasiewicz. Among the more representational pieces, Inge Doesburg's moody landscapes are, as always, strong and evocative. Blair Kennedy's simple yet effective Study is also of note, as is work by Hamish Mulvaney and Judy Smith.

For a maiden exhibition, the range of art and artists is impressive and with so many works on display, a trip to the southeastern suburbs is one which will prove worthwhile.