The Lane Gallery

The Lane Gallery (www.lanegallery.co.nz) had a selection of contemporary works on display during my time there.

The artists who contributed to the works are Pippa Blake, Clive Humphreys, Liam Davidson, Rona Ngahuia Osborne, Christine Mathieson, Nic Moon and Michel Tuffery.

The most significant art they had on display by Pippa Blake was a dramatic and expressive landscape which exaggerated the shadows and colours of the environment. Extravigant colours are spray painted in to highlight the impressiveness of her landscape, while she paints the rest of the image using warm yellows on the spray paint and leaving the majority of the painting wallowing in shadowy blues to black.

Some of the art on display by Clive Humphreys was largely contrasted. By this I mean one of his workings has colour with expressive strokes but portrays two characters with one trying to life the other from what I could see. Nothing simple or detailed about this image would relate to his other work that was done in nothing but black and white. Diamonds repeated throughout the image next two strange faced characters in suits, also repeated. Without a name tag I would find it hard to believe someone would differ so dramatically between painting styles.

Some of the work at The Lane Gallery is very inspirational and brings out the best in some of these New Zealand artists.

A beautifully painted beach scene done by Liam Davidson shows several characters within the image enjoying a sunny day at the beach. His style, although not extremely detailed keeps the image alive and helps elevate the shading tecniques he has used. His large canvas looks appealing when standing back from it and thinking about the scene itself.

One day I will take some time to find more art done by some of these artists I admire and previous ones I have seen at other art galleries also. I would be interested in what directions they take to further there work and maybe also the direction the started with.