TJ McNamara: Moments fixed in time with still life skills

Blue Temple by Angela Brennan evokes classical antiquity. Photo / Supplied

This is a week for landscapes but none of the artists portray any particular place. They do not depict nature objectively but bring together various impressions to create a scene governed by subjective moods.

Specific places are mentioned in the work by Mark Wooller at the Warwick Henderson Gallery but they only occur lettered as symbolic names of places and roads.

The landscapes are shown as vast tracts of primordial kauri forest - a forest of mythical proportions. These are the basis for a visual meditation on early land transactions in our history. Not that these are any sort of conservationist tract; rather, they fix a moment in time.

The principal element is thick dark green canopies of bush with patterns of trees and fern painted with great patience and care. Great trunks of kauri appear and in the smaller paintings Tane Mahuta himself occupies a central place.

The word "kauri" has a ring to it and the vanished kauri forests have a special place in our collective memory. Wooller has emphasised this as part of the still-life that interacts with the green forest that is the soul of the land.

In some paintings, notably A Fine Cut, there are exact replicas of tins of a tobacco called Kauri. The contrast between the commercial product and the mighty giant is ironic.

The artist's skill with still-life is put to even better symbolic use in many of the other works. These show pathways and rivers cutting through the density of the bush as well as old calendars and plans.

Most effective are the envelopes and other documents, such as deeds, that play an important part in most of the compositions. The envelopes are painted convincingly with handwritten addresses and carefully drawn stamps and postmarks. Some are crossed with blue crayon as registered letters used to be. All are connected with land transactions and supplemented by tags from milling and land-for-sale advertisements.

They make it clear that the immense resources of timber were wiped out by commercial agreements. A particularly strong image is Horotiu Stream, where the pathways through the forest are labelled Queen St and Wellesley St and the documents include a notice of plots for sale surveyed by Mathew Felton, who was responsible for laying out much of early Auckland.

In some of the paintings the dark colour of the course of a meandering stream looks more like bitumen than water - though this may be another deliberate irony. There are places where the whole concept is pushed too hard, notably where the bush does not roll away into the distance but remains flat, even when it supports a stylised mountain.

Nevertheless, this is an impressively coherent show that grapples with our history in a visually effective way.

A remarkable panorama that does roll away into the distance is part of an exhibition called Glory by P. J. Paterson at Sanderson Contemporary Art. This is dominated by one work - a digitally collated print that shows a yard of wrecked cars that stretches to the horizon in an infinity of junk, and puts everything else in the show (clever and imaginative though it is) entirely in the shade.

There is little shade in the vivid, colourful landscapes of Angela Brennan, an Australian artist who has an exhibition at Orexart.

One of the paintings is simply lettering in white on a green field saying: "To whom Achilles, swiftest of the swift, replied." What words he replied are not included but a reply is provided by the paintings - Mediterranean landscapes done in vivid colour with swift, vigorous gestures. Achilles is usually associated with anger and brutality, yet these are full of joy.

As in the paintings of Matisse, the warmth and joy stem from the colour as well as the delicate rhythms and visual rhymes that hold the works together, despite their apparent absolute spontaneity.

Brennan evokes classical antiquity by frequently using columns. Green Temple has columns both standing and fallen by the sea. Blue Temple has columns against a landscape of green and red with a jug in a shape that has been used for thousands of years.

These bright and resonant paintings are full of the memory of places and things with the attractive swiftness of their making occasionally marred by some disorganised passages, like a patch of intrusive blue in Five Daughters and One Son.

That Australian painting is not all sweetness and light is made clear by the sombre work of David Weir in the smaller gallery at Orexart.

His time in the Outback makes him sensitive to deep shadows contrasting with blazing light and dusty colour. His swathes of black also recall black bitumen roads cutting through the landscape.

The interplay of dark and light is conveyed by wide, carded rectangles and semi-circles of dark brown which often make gaps or tunnels through which a light is apparent.

The compositions are locked together by a powerful rhythm and sometimes linked by verticals that have been allowed to run down the canvas. At its best, his technique conveys a deep consciousness of the nature of the land in abstractions that have an impressive monumental quality.

The work of Iain Cheesman, The Limiteds, at nearby FhE's front gallery, is three-dimensional, light and lyrical. It consists of little sculptures that spell out words done in welded plastic wire.

They stand clear of the wall and cast lively shadows. The shape of the word more or less effectively supports the meaning of it. The effect can be witty, as when HUGGER is supported by a little tree branch, or charming as in KISS UP and THE LOVER. On the other hand, FOLLY and SUCCULENT are rather missed opportunities in what is, overall, a lively, entertaining show.

At the galleries

What: The First Post by Mark Wooller

Where and when: Warwick Henderson Gallery, 32 Bath St, Parnell, to April 30

TJ says: Skilled painting that combines magic realism with historical issues.

What: Glory by P. J. Paterson

Where and when: Sanderson Contemporary Art, 251 Parnell Rd, to May 1

TJ says: Although the title print dominates this show, the other experimental work in a variety of media shows both imagination and skill.

What: To Whom Achilles ... by Angela Brennan; Shadows and Light by David Weir

Where and when: Orexart, Upper Khartoum Pl, to April 30

TJ says: Brennan evokes classical Mediterranean landscapes in rich colour while Weir makes a potent abstract art of the bright light and dark shade of the Outback.

What: Needy by Iain Cheesman

Where and when: FhE Project Gallery, 2 Kitchener St, to May 14

TJ says: Bright, plastic-covered wire is shaped into words in this lively show.

Check out your local galleries here.