The latest works by Scott McFarlane explore the overlap between intention and outcome, paint and illusion, the psychological and the physical.

McFarlane paints about the memory of place as much as he paints to explore what paint can do and how that medium echoes the Otago landscapes that he describes.

Within these new paintings there is a pleasing duality composed of Victorian nostalgia and earthy realism. This sensibility is captured by the emblematic treatment of landscapes that are heavy with timeless melancholy and stillness. It is captured by the controlled rawness of the paint application and the secondary colour palette, as if the artist has used the earth itself.

The chiaroscuro or distance between darkest dark and lightest light is dramatic, and yet there is a calm and meditative quality to each of these paintings.

The paintings irrevocably connect to the artist as observer and participant at each site. Also irrevocable and overtly intriguing or beautiful, is the sense of gothic romance: The power and the addiction of and to place and how place becomes a psychological site for the individual as much as a physical one.

The intensity and metaphysical beauty about the way McFarlane describes dark, light and shape, suits these southern landscapes well. It resonates for many who know the gothic beauty of the southern contrasts and the soaring dominance of the landscape.

At Papanui Cone is a fascinating work where a dark shape is imposed into the landscape, countering a watery place behind. The simplicity of the contrasts outlined in this exhibition are encapsulated in a work like this, as is the fusion of artist and place.

Dunedin is a magnificent work that becomes a different kind of summation. This work is less gothic, more intellectual, akin to a study and play of techniques. And yet this powerful painting describes an awesome distance and psychological remove.