The galleries: Last images from a big, bold man

The Sly Grogger's Mare Heading Towards the Still.

In a sad event without parallel, the opening of Trevor Moffitt's exhibition at the Warwick Henderson Gallery in Parnell was followed the same evening by his sudden death at his home in Christchurch.

Moffitt was a big man, a fine rugby player in his youth, and totally devoted to his art. His subject matter was all his own and is the material of this now-posthumous exhibition. Moffitt loved folklore and stories. As a student he was a fine painter of figures, landscape and boat harbours. He struck a rich vein of material when he did a series of powerful paintings about the haunted, driven figure of McKenzie the sheep-stealer.

From then on, in defiance of fashion, he painted regional subjects. There was autobiographical work, famously a painting where his father bellows at him, "No son of mine will ever go to varsity", as well as men fishing for salmon, men departing to and returning from the war and historical material like the hunt in the bush for the killer, Stanley Graham.

Moffitt's paintings were done with broad forms and thick brushstrokes. He had the most aggressive and bold signature of any artist in New Zealand. His work was always more than illustrative, the handling ensured they were strong paintings as well.

The exhibition in Parnell follows the pattern although it has to be said his hand was beginning to falter. The paintings are smaller than usual and the drawing is often rough.

There are two series and the more interesting one deals with the making of Hokonui moonshine. All the legendary material is under titles such as If It Burns Blue It's Fit to Drink and Early Morning Tipple which shows flood waters swamping the pub but not deterring the drinkers.

The best of the paintings concern Constable Kerse who found his way to the moonshiners' still by mounting their horse, giving it free rein, and letting it lead him to the wisp of blue smoke and that copper coil essential to the illegal art of making whiskey.

The outstanding painting is the one that keeps a monumental iconographic quality. Between two trees we see the horse and the unmistakable dark figure of a policeman in a helmet heading along a track towards a hint of smoke, rising from deep within the bush. The title is The Sly Grogger's Mare Heading Toward the Still.

The painting has an unmistakable antipodean feel and in its simplicity completely encapsulates the lore surrounding illicit whiskey.

The other paintings, concerning a drunken man's brutality to his wife, are dark, brutal and raw.

The whole exhibition was titled Hokonui Moonshine: Final Works and such they prove to be. They are the last images from the brush of one of the most idiosyncratic, independent minded painters in New Zealand. The exhibition runs until April 29 and a book on Moffitt's life and work is due out later in the year.

Across the road at the Bath St Gallery (to April 29) there are paintings by Riduan Tomkins who taught for many years at the Ilam School of Art in Christchurch. His work is abstract colour field painting with a difference. In most of his paintings there are rich surfaces of colour, varied and given life by layering which enables the under painting to show through and enliven the surface. This makes the colours rich and intense. Particularly potent are the lovely shades of blue.

The special quality in his work is that within these fields of colour are tiny isolated figures. The apartness of these figures suggest that though the world is rich and has much to offer, the individual can become isolated.

A typical and impressive canvas is called Sustainer of the Worlds which features a smaller circle orbiting within a larger one. On the edge of each circle is a small figure. The feeling is more obvious in Climb Every Mountain where hills arranged in angular geometric composition challenge the little figures.

The sense of isolation is also emphasised in a painting which has a single dancing figure, stylised with baggy trousers called Single Figure with Painting.

Tomkins' work has a clear sense of purpose, a fine touch and truly impressive colour.

Natural materials produce natural colour and the English artist Mark Graver, now settled here, uses plant matter, ashes and clay to produce complex layered paintings where the prevailing tone is shades of russet and brown. His work is at the Oedipus Rex Gallery until May 5.

He makes works with rich texture and often engraved with lines that suggest growth patterns. These paintings are more effective than the ones with an all-over stony surface.

In the other room at Oedipus Rex, Roger Hickin stays with sombre tones of black and white. His work is concerned with portals like the sombre doors into darkness that are the feature of many Baroque tombs, yet these works are severely geometric. Inspired by the meditations of St John of the Cross, they sombrely set our minds on another world but need to be bigger to have the effect they aim for.