Art Seen: August 25

In this week's Art Seen, James Dignan looks at works by Matheson Beaumont, Sandra Bianciardi, and Pauline Bellamy.

At First Light, by Matheson Beaumont.

Matheson Beaumont is a doyen of Dunedin photography.

As he celebrates his 89th birthday and an astonishing 68 years at his craft, Gallery Fe29 in St Clair is celebrating his achievements with an exhibition which is both a showcase of new work and a retrospective of his years behind the lens.

Landscape is a prominent subject in Beaumont's oeuvre, and one in which the art of composition is of primary importance.

Landscape photography requires the artist's eye to grasp the essentials of a scene as it exists, and to force the viewer to look at the land in a different way by careful cropping and framing.

This is a skill at which Beaumont is extremely adept; The Vine Shed gives a perfect illustration of how composition shapes his images.

The photographer's landscapes become living forms, as in his compelling The Black Hills, Lines of Light, and the unsettling Danse Macabre, or become impressionistic evocations of mood, as is the case with The Birches and The Promise.

People are rarely shown in Beaumont's images, though their presence is frequently implied, especially in his quiet harbour scenes such as At First Light.

The artist's earliest work, represented by the monochrome Anchorage, show a fine touch which has been honed and extended as the years have progressed.

Cercle et Fenetre (Circle and Window), by Sandra Bianciardi.

Young French painter Sandra Bianciardi has several works on display in ''Exploration'', at Mint Gallery. Her soft, muted paintings place daily human activities at the centre of attention, drawing the viewer in.

The works have distinct narratives. There is a dark, voyeuristic feel to several of the pieces - we seem to be watching intimate daily rituals and schedules in images such as Le portillon and Dejeuner.

At other times, the story is more clouded, and we are left to wonder at the activities being undertaken in Four scenes (Untitled) and Intervention.

It is easy to see or read into the works a wide range of influences, either deliberate or subconscious.

The scenes and protagonists echo styles and composition from realism through expressionism to the studied stillness and elevation of the mundane found in new-wave cinema.

In some works, notably L'avancee, Bianciardi almost seems to have tapped into the spirit of our own Jeffrey Harris.

The backgrounds of the works have a soft-focus dynamism, yet the figures, where the action would be expected, are static and introspective, creating an interesting frisson.

The use of bold delineations and flattening of perspective gives works such as Les Raisins de Corinthe and Cercle et Fenetre a strong, graphic feel, but adds further unease to the scenes.

Petal, by Pauline Bellamy.

''Winter Landscape'' is an opportunity to see the versatility of local artist Pauline Bellamy. In the 17 works on display, she has run the gamut of media and technique, with paintings in oil, acrylic, gouache, and watercolour as well as monoprints and etchings.

The works share the theme given in the exhibition's title, with moody, misty works focusing on the hills of Otago Peninsula and Central Otago.

As is commonly the case with Bellamy's work, people are absent from the paintings (though in one instance there is a rather adorable cow staring out of the frame), but become the main subject of the printed works, these latter pieces focusing on midwinter sportspeople.

The etchings, in warm ivory-black tones, contain welcome touches of humour in their evocation of human whimsy, from the hottie-hugging midwinter swimmer to the distinctly unathletic curler who seems more interested in his pint than the game.

It is the evocative landforms which provide the bulk of the show, however, with notable works such as the moody Harbour Cone/Black Sky and the wide land and sky of St Bathans Back Road.

The two oil works, Highcliff Road and the exceptional Highcliff Road Mist are centrepieces of the exhibition, their expressive, bold strokes giving an otherworldly air to their Peninsula subject.

- by James Dignan