All Things Considered - Works on Paper by Piera McArthur

Piera worked and lived for many years in Paris and later while painting in Moscow, became the first New Zealander to have a solo show at the “New Tretiakov” Gallery. "In Russia," she writes, “I came of age as a painter, experiencing strong reaction both for and against."

Fellow painter and compatriot friend of Paris days, Douglas MacDiarmid, recently described his delight at “Your mastery of your style which is unique”.

As stated by Piera: "There are two poles to my work, which influence one another nevertheless. One is the fascinating world of drawing, a miraculous medium which can say it all, the other is the glorious world of colour and paint. My life aim as an artist is to travel on both these paths, combining and integrating. I am aiming for the thrill of ordered chaos which can end in harmony."

About the drawing world - take, for example, the works in this show which deal with groups of people. My idea is to abstract the human form in close proximity, so that the bodies are reduced to simple planes, the people depicted become part of a world of colour which has a life of its own - ambient, turbulent, vibrant, but which, because of an underlying balance, results, like the people it infiltrates, in a final harmonious whole. It is about tensions and balance. Hopefully, other satirical elements complete the picture.

I am sometimes accused of being "European". This is hardly astonishing seeing that my life as a good New Zealander has been spent in capitals of the world. It is also a fact that my work deals largely with people, a theme of eternal interest and valid everywhere, in Paris, New York, Auckland, Timbuctoo.... Let’s not get parochial and let’s remember that a true painter applies his or her vision to whatever happens to be the surrounding theme.

What matters is the quality of the work. Did you know that Rembrandt so prized drawings that he had a collection of over two thousand done by other artists? Who can tell what I may be tempted to portray now that I live and work in lovely "Godzone"?

Happy viewing.

Piera McArthur

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