Deeply involved in surface appearances

By LINDA HERRICK

Brenda Hartill's lifestyle could be better - but it's hard to see how. The artist, who grew up in Auckland and has lived in London for many years, has forged a niche in that city's art scene while also maintaining a regular exhibiting profile in New Zealand.

When Hartill and her husband, Harold Moores, of the famous Harold Moores Records in London, tire of England they simply turn to their second home, a medieval schoolhouse in a village in Andalucia.

Occasionally, the Hartills travel back here so she can exhibit and the couple can catch up with old friends. Friends like Parliament Speaker Jonathan Hunt, whose Karekare house they often stay at. Hunt opened Hartill's exhibition at the Lane Gallery, proudly pointing to the two large works she created in his garage - all the other prints in the 30-work show have been shipped from London.

The works are highly textured abstracts, with glimmers of light whipped through with silver or gold leaf. Hartill refers to her work as collagraphy, meaning she mixes media and method, playing with materials such as plant forms, copper, zinc, etchings, paint and dense carborundum powder.

Hartill dislikes flat, one-dimensional work, preferring to scrunch up and manipulate the surface so it becomes a sculptural form. "Collagraphy allows you to be much freer,"she explains. "You can sample from different things and make layers. I can get much more interesting, deep textures.

"Biting into the metal with acid allows me to add all these different levels and it becomes quite rich. Adding silver and gold leaf gives it another dimension on top of that as well."

She is always on the lookout for "things that are thin enough to go through the press" - like husks from palm trees from Spain, and beachcombed material her niece sends from New Zealand.

In some of the works, Hartill's use of plant form is subtle, not immediately obvious. "I like to use plants for tracery. Plants have an energy of their own. I use traceries of trees or the vein of a prickly pear from Spain as the starting point for something that reflects the landscape or rivers or water. Then I can go in different directions, depending on where the mood takes me."

Printmaking Today magazine last year named Hartill as "one of Britain's leading printmakers" and she has been commissioned to write a book on collagraphy to be published later this year.

So it's interesting that Hartill found her feet as a printmaker only after quitting her first career as theatre designer. She had attended Elam in the early 60s, graduating with honours in painting. After receiving a QEII Arts Council scholarship, she moved to London to study theatre design. She worked in that field for the next decade, at places like the Young Vic and the National Theatre.

Moores, with whom she attended high school in Auckland, followed her to London and eventually marriage and two children came along. So did reality. "I was quite ambitious and I never thought I'd give up my theatre work because of children but you have to face reality. I found it impossible to carry on working in theatre. The hours were too long and you had to work at night."

When the children were still toddlers, Hartill decided to "have a look" at printmaking. She chose Morley College because it had a creche, and was hooked almost immediately.

"This was a medium I really liked. Before, when I had drawn, I worked in a very representational, literal style."

Now that she has found a new dealer in Auckland - she used to work with the old Portfolio Gallery in Lorne St - Hartill aims to keep sending work back here. "I like to have a presence in Auckland - it's an important part of my life and my husband's family is here."

So too are all of those good old friends who packed out the gallery on opening night.

Exhibition

* Who: Recent work, by Brenda Hartill

* Where & when: Lane Gallery, until May 22