Art seen: A fascination with beehives

'Rangitata Valley', by Michael Hight.

Michael Hight, 'Road to Erewhon', Milford Gallery

Michael Hight continues his fascination with beehives in his latest exhibition.

As in previous exhibitions, two distinct disparate styles are displayed - landscapes and bold block abstractions.

Despite the similarities with past displays, there are distinct changes from previous Hight shows.

The landscapes are generally larger, and the scale of the work is not limited to dimensions alone.

Meticulous effort has gone into the creation of these pieces, as the fine mesh of the linen surfaces has allowed the artist to produce more finely detailed images.

The landscapes depicted are, as the title suggests, those of inland Canterbury.

They are evoked with a fine touch, with mountains looming from the paintings and wide straths stretching deep into the pictures.

Added pictorial elements speak to the artist's compositional sense, which matches his ability with a brush.

The abstracts are a departure for Hight, not in style but in medium.

Rather than being worked from rectangles of wax as in previous shows, block elements of painted board have been placed together.

Cues, in the form of hive brand marks, make the connection between these pieces and landscapes clear: these are not total abstractions, but are directly inspired by the form of the hives.

By presenting the abstracts and landscapes together, we see the hives as part of the land and simultaneously as artefacts in their own right.

Angela Burns, 'Towards the Bay', Gallery on Blueskin

Angela Burns' latest exhibition at Waitati focuses on the colours and forms of the coastal landscape north of Dunedin.

In a series of pieces, predominantly in acrylic on thick art paper but with a smaller number of works in oil, the artist has presented impressions of the coast in a series of sweeps and blocks of colour.

The palette tends towards the blue end of the spectrum, with deep, powerful indigo suffusing several of the pieces.

The works approach the feel of abstract expressionism, yet with the blocks and areas of colour rendering them at least partially representational.

Several of the smaller pieces, in particular, have some of the feel, and calming stillness, of the Blaue Reiter school modified by the influence of mid-20th-century artists such as Diebenkorn.

Other paintings, like the broad majestic sweeps of the sea in Wave returning, capture a single instant of motion, leaving the completed image as a near-total abstract.

One or two of the pieces move more towards the purely representational.

Of these, perhaps the clearest example would be Bay approaching, with its hillsides rendered in bold diagonals against a distant shining bay.

"A feminine palette", The Artist's Room

Three local women have pooled their talents in an exhibition at The Artist's Room.

The works of Jan Ingram, Sheryl McCammon and Maria Kemp are all well known to local gallery attendees, and all have presented fine pieces for this group show.

Jan Ingram uses fine washes of colour to produce stylish still-lifes, largely dwelling on ephemera and ornaments depicted against coloured windows and mirrors.

She has a deft touch and fine eye for composition, accompanied by the ability to successfully capture the play of light through old glass.

Maria Kemp's impressive landscapes are constantly evolving, and now have a more realistic touch than the stylised folds of hillform for which she was once known.

Her work now focuses more on the Otago Peninsula area than her previous Central Otago landscapes, and it could be largely the different landforms which have led to this change in style.

Sheryl McCammon's skill at spotting pattern, detail, and what makes a fine image come together in a series of works depicting facets of Dunedin architecture.

In images such as that of a university registry building window she has carefully depicted specific features, letting them speak for the building as a whole.

The resulting pieces are effective and well crafted.