“Chroma II”  January 14 – February 29, 2020

Our winter group exhibition features paintings that are saturated with glorious colour.  Artists included are Jack Bush, Mark Dicey, Jonathan Forrest, James Kirkpatrick, Ron Martin, William Perehudoff, Gordon Rayner, Jonathan Syme, David Urban and Hans Wendt.

Chroma is the quality of a colour’s purity, intensity or saturation.  From Ron Martin’s “black” painting to Mark Dicey’s abstract that contains layer upon layer of carefully placed shapes and colours, this exhibition compares and contrasts one of the most important decisions an artist makes: the choice of colour to express their unique idea.

One of the first paintings you see is Gordon Rayner’s 1977 canvas called “Queen”.  The bubble gum pink and bright yellow combination is striking.   Similarly, James Kirkpatrick chooses assonant tones that evoke a rhythm and sound, a “pop” that make the characters sing.

Coming from the modernist tradition, both Jonathan Forrest and William Perehudoff’s paintings follow certain abstract standards.  With Jonathan Forrest’s new luminous paintings, however, he is paying homage to this strong history and pushing the medium and his technique to new heights.

We explore the importance of technique and meticulous colour choices with Jonathan Syme’s new paintings and Hans Wendt’s recent watercolour and discover thick gesture and the “toughness” of paint with David Urban and Ron Martin.

In direct contrast to the bright colour in the front gallery, we have hung four magnificent landscape paintings by Roly Fenwick in the middle gallery.  These brooding, meditative and poetic paintings encourage a long look.  Though they depict a swamp, escarpment and waterfall taken from nature, Fenwick’s handling of the subject should inspire us to look more closely when confronted with such beauty.