Art seen

<i>Beauty Playing a Koto Musical Instrument c1820,</i> by Kunisada

Japanese woodblock prints, otherwise known as ukiyo-e, flourished during the Edo Period (17th-19th centuries). They originated as popular culture and depicted images of courtesans, sumo wrestlers and kabuki actors from the world of entertainment.

Artists were inspired by and responded to the interests and preferences of the general public. The works largely focus on ''pictures of beautiful women''. Geisha and courtesans are depicted going about their daily lives and duties. The images are not only beautifully printed but are also in near-perfect condition.

Many of the prints are brightly coloured using aniline dyes imported from Germany. These dyes were regularly used from the 1860s on, as in Fusatane Utagawa's Courtesan Reading a Book 1881. The saturated blues, purples and reds may startle in their intensity but on the whole the colours have been used to positive advantage. They were also used to signify elegance and fashionable modernity. Other prints are older and are produced with natural vegetable dyes, creating a softer, faded quality. Eisen Keisai's Beauty Holding an Umbrella 1804-1818 is an example with soft greens, grey-blues and pinks dominating the work.

All the works are dynamic, highly patterned and of great complexity. They retain a clear stage-like setting, evident in the deliberately constructed posing and composition of characters as seen in Toyokuni III's tryptych Samurai Warriors Defending a Beauty 1825. The skills of the artists are clearly evident, making this exhibition well worth a visit.

<i>Arisaema candidissimum,</i> by Sue Wickison

Historically, botanical artists aimed to record the flora discovered on expeditions. The criteria were scientific accuracy and to depict the subject in sufficient detail to be recognised.

These artists had the ability to manipulate the image in order to add information: a flower shown simultaneously in bloom, in bud and passed to seed.

This month, the Dunedin Botanic Garden is celebrating its 150th anniversary. As part of this occasion, an exhibition of botanical artwork features work from four notable artists. These artists have collaborated with and been inspired by Dunedin Botanic Garden over the years and have produced drawings and watercolour images, all very different in nature. John Noakes was known for his painted bus shelters, but his monochromatic ink sketches of leaves and trees are delicately rendered with textures built up in a pointillist manner.

Pat Brooke's work consists of pencil and watercolour drawings of plants and flowers, highly coloured with painstaking attention to shading and layout. Audrey Eagle's work defines her book, Eagle's Complete Trees and Shrubs of New Zealand. Disappointingly, the art displayed has been reproduced from the originals, but it does not detract from demonstrating her expertise in reproducing the exquisite beauty of nature. Sue Wickison's work is flamboyant. This Wellington artist paints the more peculiar and spectacular plants such as the funnel-like Arisaema. Meticulously painted, Wickison's specimens are larger than life, yet capture the minute details of texture and colour differences.

<i>Mneiai II,</i> by Donna Demente

Donna Demente focuses her artwork on the face. This latest exhibition from the artist, also known for her exquisite masks and painted eggs, concentrates on portrait painting, with both large and small pieces displayed. The image, done from a close-up viewpoint is heavily influenced by elements of Renaissance and Byzantine art as seen in the serious closed-lip stare - anything beyond a slight smile being rather rare, historically.

However, with the mouth relatively neutral, much of the facial expression is created in Demente's work with an emphasis on the eyes and eyebrows. As the artist's signature motif, the eyes create an interaction between the artwork and the viewer. Although artists and art movements from the past have influenced her work, Demente has her own style, with a flattened picture plane and isolated face, placing her work in the present day. Some pieces are based on statues from the Winter Gardens in Auckland.

These portraits appear sculpted and Roman-like, with those painted in a mossy blue-green palette giving a tombstone, weathered appearance, as in Mords Angeles # 1. Vertical boards inevitably encourage long necks, long noses, small voluptuous lips and large eyes, as seen in Myrrha, whereas some other shapes encourage the face to be stretched sideways with wider noses, wide half-closed eyes and long wide lips, as in Hephasia. A 3-D effect is given to some with painted scrunched cotton fabric used to build up the head attire on some of the works.

- Julie Jopp