TJ McNamara: Everyday life made grand and remarkable

Blue Iron by Philip Trusttum. Photo / Steven McNicholl

Philip Trusttum, one of our best-known painters, is as prolific as Picasso yet until now there has not been a publication devoted to his work or a substantial retrospective exhibition. Now the situation has to some extent been put right by a considerable exhibition at the Pah Homestead and a book by Robin Woodward from the University of Auckland. The paintings are all from the collection of Sir James Wallace and his trust helped materially with the book. In the exhibition, explications from the book accompany each work.

The show includes paintings from his early work to his latest series on rugby, done to be part of the fervour swirling about the World Cup.

Two aspects of his work are apparent. One is that he revels in the qualities of paint and the other is that most of the work is founded in the everyday life of the artist, his children, grandchildren and the life on the small farm which was his home until the Christchurch earthquake turned everything on its head.

The paintings are always large and exuberant and each grows in its own way from incidents in reality. There is not usually a focal point. You cannot take in a painting by Trusttum at a glance. It must be carefully explored for the variety of visual incident. The differences are often the result of technical caprice for Trusttum makes his works in ways known only to him. He produces a variety of effect, a mixing of abstract and figurative art that shows a constant originality. The paintings often begin figuratively but develop into a set of abstract shapes. Often there are thousands of tiny details pulled overall into painterly meaning by texture, rhythm and, above all, colour.

No other painter in New Zealand has made colour glow with such warmth and, by combining colours in unexpected ways, produce such unusual harmonies. It is like a homely ballad theme lifted to the grand harmony of a symphony.

Look for a splendidly colourful, near-abstraction called The Drum made in 1968, which has colour upon colour with the surface undercoated, rubbed and painted again and again. A work that perfectly sums up the Trusttum manner is Blue Iron (1999) where, in a big form that charges across the painting, you can perceive the dial on the iron which goes from low to high as well as its thrusting nose. Behind it, dancing patterns of great complexity are based on the shirt which is to be ironed. It is a domestic act made into a monumental and exciting painting.

There are a series of paintings based on Trusttum's love of tennis with its patterns inspired by nets, cyclone wire, racquets, balls and even the undersoles of shoes. And there are the big ungainly horses in paintings that show the artist and his family riding, grooming, mucking out and falling off the horse.

A particularly exciting group is based on music, notably Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition. One of the most lively evokes the witch Baba Yaga which is a work of jagged shapes and vivid blue on a yellow background and a silver birch broomstick.

Trusttum breaks all the rules of how to apply paint, perspective and composition, colour harmony, subject matter, framing and hanging. Individually, and in sum, they represent a magnificent and highly original achievement.

Scott Gardiner, showing at Whitespace, is a painter from a younger generation who takes the modern scene and finds metaphor within it. He has the ability to draw solid structures and, convincingly, foaming water, sky and clouds. He uses a combination of paint and pencil to achieve his effects.

One work, Diminished Faith, depicts how, in front of an immense space, the sea beats against a barrier. The work evokes Mathew Arnold's poem about the "sea of faith" and its "long withdrawing roar". The same idea of change and movement is in the attractive drawings of clouds entitled Passing Time.

The rest of this substantial show is made up of contrasts between structure and space. The structures are motorway viaducts seen from below. Slender piers support zooming motorways. Above and beyond these man-made structures is the sky. The concrete constructions successfully convey weight and solidity although at times the unseen top of the viaducts tilt in a way that would make them impossible as roadways but this adds tension.

The most impressive work is Endless Summer, which typically would be more effective on its own than among similar paintings.

Smaller galleries continue to flourish. You can see a charming husband and wife exhibition at the Seed Gallery by Rebecca Thomson and Stafford Allpress. It is called His and Hers.

She quietly uses the pale delicate charm of monoprints made from linen handkerchiefs. Her work is gracefully nostalgic when what looks like an abstract painting is a print made from a Peggy Square cushion. He uses small glass cases to enclose tiny, carefully modelled pieces of furniture. Again there is the memory factor because these perfectly made miniatures are of things such as tea trolleys. One larger piece called Sunroom captures in miniature a style of last century.

A new gallery called Black Asterisk has opened on Ponsonby Rd. The gallery is showing work by several artists but the main room displays six large portraits by Colin Luxton.

These are well over life-size and show the faces only between eyebrow and lower lip. This is enough to characterise the sitters by eyes and mouth. They are done with an impressive vigour with slashing, confident, complex drawing. All of the portraits have considerable presence but the most outstanding are Craig, which comes close to a conventional portrait drawing, and Paul, where the pupils of the eyes emerge from a tumultuous mass of stroke making.

At the galleries

What: Paintings by Philip Trusttum

Where and when: Pah Homestead, 72 Hillsborough Rd, to November 26

TJ says: Dozens of paintings from throughout his career show Trusttum's seemingly unlimited invention and superb colour sense.

What: Metropolis Now, by Scott Gardiner

Where and when: Whitespace, 12 Crummer Rd, Ponsonby, to November 12

TJ says: The thrust of engineered structures of barriers and motorways are contrasted with the space of sea and sky.

What: His and Hers, by Rebecca Thomson & Stafford Allpress

Where and when: Seed Gallery, 23A Crowhurst St, Newmarket, to November 19

TJ says: A gentle show by Thomson of colour prints made from linen handkerchiefs and woollen squares complemented by finely wrought miniature furniture by Allpress.

What: Six Portraits, by Colin Luxton

Where and when: Black Asterisk, 10 Ponsonby Rd, to November 23

TJ says: A new gallery opens with portraits on paper on a very large scale. The close-up faces are done in an energetic, slashing style.

Check it out
For gallery listings, see nzherald.co.nz/gallerylistings