Nick Howson "Recent Paintings"

“Recent Paintings”
Official Opening Friday 3 September 2004
6:00 – 8:00pm

Nationally recognised for some years, Nick Howson’s art has already been collected by the National Gallery of Australia. He describes his paintings as “…romantic dreamscapes of no specific place…” which are to be enjoyed as delightful journeys.

Pastoral Hues

Howson’s second solo exhibition with Art Galleries Schubert includes his familiar patch-worked, rural landscapes. Rustic settings are suffused in the light and hues of the changing hours and seasons; farm buildings and equipment emerge like mirages from summer bleached fields, across which the stalwart horse stands firm; the vigour of the great black bull is cordoned in the verdant greens of spring; moonlit vistas shimmer through evenings velvet darkness.

Fantasy Pavilions

In his most recent works, the scenes are more abstracted and richer colours vibrate in increasingly complex compositions. Howson’s whimsical inventiveness has been allowed full reign, as exotic creatures manifest between fantasy pavilions and ornamental trees. Again it is the particular placement and posturing of his birds which “give voice and direction” to each painting.

Prodigious Technical Skill

The toy-like simplicity of Howson’s imagery belies his prodigious technical ability. He is well aware of the subtle action of colour on feeling. Atmospheric depths are built up from infusing and layering of oil paint onto the coarse surface of Belgian Linen. Every patch-work shape and quixotic motif has been carefully composed to create a specific optical sensation.

The wonderful, melodic cadence to Nick Howson’s paintings encourages the viewer to experience them as gladsome ‘creation-songs’.

Jacqueline Houghton