 | “The impact of light and space, the smell of the river across hot stones with attendant scents of herbs and grasses was so aromatic that if I could have I would have bottled it. I remembered that Cezanne had wished to include in his work The Scent of Pines, an impossible task but nevertheless an honourable intention in increasing the reality of the landscape” (1)
Parker’s aim is a classical harmony of form and colour in which both the ‘monk’ and the ‘voluptuary’ co-exist. (2)
“Nature and music have played complementary roles as inspiration for John Parker’s painting. His works could be described as abstraction grown from observation.” The Plain Song series, for which he is best known, was begun in the late 1980s. The title alludes to the medieval Gregorian chant, and the shapes of the Canterbury and Marlborough ‘plains’ which provide inspiration and puns on the two-dimensional ‘planes’ of the Cubists and it conveys plainness as opposed to embroidery, exaggeration or busyness. Parker has always been drawn to emotive rather than hard-edged art and believes in eliminating in painting any obstacles to the spirit: “If your painting’s going to have a language, its got to be felt. It’s a physical thing.” (3)
The appeal lies in the colour and intense layered brushwork (a misnomer in that the paint is applied thickly with a palette knife). There is a “visual excitement of layers of underpainting showing through and energising the surface. Added to this is a sense of light.” (4)
Born Auckland, New Zealand 1944. Diploma of Fine Arts (Honours), School of Fine Arts, University of Canterbury, 1966. Has exhibited regularly since 1967. His work is held in many public and private collections in New Zealand and internationally. Awarded the Frances Hodgkins Fellowship, University of Otago in 1975. Since then has lived and worked in Marlborough.
(1) Christopher Moore, ‘Rural renaissance’, The Press, 11 April 2001.
(2) ‘JS Parker – Plain Song – Songs of Light and Space – Sun and Air’, Centre of Contemporary Art, Christchurch, 2001
(3) Elizabeth Caughey and John Gow, ‘Contemporary New Zealand Art 2’, David Bateman Ltd, Auckland, 1999.
(4) TJ McNamara, ‘Appeal and challenge’, NZ Herald, 27 June 1998. | |
