T J McNamara: Master of ceremonies

River Scene by Andrew McLeod.

Andrew McLeod’s new show includes three large paintings with a strong element of history

The possibilities of paint seem inexhaustible. Andrew McLeod, whose New Oils is at Ivan Anthony Galleries, began as a composer of elaborate computer-based imagery but this show has three different orders of oil painting.

First, and most magisterially, are three exceptionally large figure paintings. These are done with considerable skill in drawing and painting and incorporate a strong element of art history.

One tall work, Kowhaiwhai with Rainbow and Dragon, has a background of tight Maori patterns. A rainbow arches across the top, weaving through the patterns. A weird, prehistoric, dragon-like bird is above the rainbow. Flowers and a number of women, robed in a pre-Raphaelite 19th-century manner, occupy the foreground. Conspicuous among them is a girl from Millais' famous painting of The Return of the Dove to the Ark. All of the women have a ritual priestess function and suggest the part played by European tradition in remote New Zealand.

Darker and more turbulent but with less specifically New Zealand content is River Scene with a river and a background of dark bush. Here the figures are all in action and most are taken from Rembrandt paintings, with some from Delacroix.

It is not necessary to know the origin of the quotations to appreciate the curious scene but such things as the lion decoration on the shaft of Pluto's chariot from Rembrandt's Abduction of Proserpine, which is here spouting water, add to the powerful drama. It also includes details such as curious wheels and an umbrella from a cart in the same artist's Rape of Europa, although the princess being carried away is considerably less flustered than the Old Master's version.

The third big painting is fittingly called Classical Scene with Turquoise and Ochre. Shades of brown are used all through it, notably in splendidly painted decaying tree trunks and on a huge clay vase, which rests among other ceramics. A stately classical figure in a white robe is hounded by Furies gathered around her head.

What meaning the viewer gives to these virtuoso paintings -- perhaps exploration, abduction or turbulence amid classical poise -- is left to the individual but the style and skill is intriguing. Whether the admiration extends to the small abstract work in which the painter demonstrates he can do that style too is more problematic. McLeod's small geometric abstractions are neatly harmonised and inventive. His abstract expressionist works are less convincing. His colour sense fails him and the daubing technique lacks rhythm.

Also at Ivan Anthony are watercolours by Michael Harrison. As usual, he portrays the soft dreams of young people and cats, all with a hint of predator in their thinking.

There is plenty of dash in the unusual paintings by Josephine Cachemaille at Sanderson Contemporary Art. The artist has a reputation for making strange objects that invoke fetish magic and there are some of these objects on a table, including rag-wrapped dolls with adult faces.

Attractor by Josephine Cachemaille.

Nevertheless, it is the big black paintings on the wall that hold the attention. The show is called Active Agents/Passive Matter. It suggests that active force can come from solid matter. Painted on the intense black backgrounds are huge, faceted rocks, mostly in gold paint so they evoke ore-bearing rock, either pyrites or real gold. They have a magic force. Their glitter holds promise. One, called Unit, adds crystals to the effect.

They carry this weight of meaning because they force themselves on the viewer's attention by the vigour and conviction of the gold paint's handling. Additions such as directional arrows in several works detract rather than add to the force.

Delicacy, pausing and quietude are the keynotes of the soft, gentle paintings of Emily Wolfe at Melanie Roger Gallery. These rely on a subtle touch that conveys effects of suburban light and the visual poetry of the commonplace. Switches, power points and bare wooden floorboards play their role in the compositions alongside the transparency of fine voile curtains.

The show is called The Slant of Light and one of the principal features is the way the light coming through windows throws distorted reflections on the walls.

Through the delicate fabric of the sheer curtains, which hang loosely, the dim images of houses across the road are perceptible. The prevailing colour is grey with only hints of red in some curtains and the green of garden hedges beyond the windows.

In one case the mood of the work is supported by a small vase of flowers on a window ledge. This is a little trite, not as effective as the straightforward composition that has a sheet of paper, brown around the edges and held on the wall by sticky tape at the corners.

The content of the exhibition is not a lot different from previous work by Wolfe but, in the tightening of the formal composition, there is a new level of maturity.

At the galleries

What:

New Oils

by Andrew McLeod; Symmetrical Voices by Michael Harrison

Where and when:

Ivan Anthony Galleries, cnr K Rd and East St, to November 15

TJ says:

A mixture of big paintings of figures in a landscape filled with quotations from Old Masters, with small paintings of geometric abstraction and others in abstract expressionist style. Plus some soft watercolours of dreams by Michael Harrison.

What: Active Agents/Passive Matter by Josephine Cachemaille
Where and when: Sanderson Contemporary Art, Osborne Lane, 2 Kent St, Newmarket, to November 9
TJ says: Potent paintings in black and gold suggest that forms of stone can do more than just glitter; they have a special magic.

What: A Slant of Light by Emily Wolfe
Where and when: Melanie Roger Gallery, 226 Jervois Rd, Herne Bay to November 15
TJ says: Paintings of diffuse light and reflections in pale, curtained spaces achieve a gentle poetic effect.