Cool, Calm & Collected

In the face of earthquakes, hard frosts, cabin fever and gloomy global forecasts, it’s vital to stay Cool, Calm & Collected. New works by John Burns, Jacqui Gibbs Chamberlain and Candy Clarke defy the somber grey of winter in a show pulsing with uninhibited vigor and colour.

John Burns hails from either Christchurch or Otira, or as he calls it ‘The Coast’. A painter for over 25 years, he has developed his own themes and unique figurative style. Right now, it is his ‘Ladies’ that beckon to be brought to light. On these John explains, ‘These beautiful living creatures are of their own making...they choose their look and their thoughts at this time. They don’t share their concerns with others as to their beauty, their choice is wholly their own...‘ Witty, intensely vibrant and a little out-there crazy these ladies are dancing to their own beat.

Jacqui Gibbs Chamberlain lives and paints from an isolated farm on Banks Peninsula. Her instinctual figurative paintings radiate life, energy and movement. These latest works mingle ideas around instinctual responses in humans and animals, inspired by recent travel and the Canterbury earthquakes. Lyrical, painterly dreamlike images are complement by a deers head sculpted from resin and embedded with broken glass recycled from quake damaged relics.

Candy Clarke needs little introduction to the local Nelson arts community. Her signature medium - reverse painted Perspex artworks are intuitively playful and refreshingly honest in their intent. This current selection of works respond to the pond water viewed from Reflections gallery, balancing cool calming images with hot and complimentary colours in a variety of shaped formats. She says, ‘I am using text to create uncertain landscapes where the words appear to sit up from the picture plane and sometimes seem to be swallowed or slowly sinking.’ Bold animated images create the illusion of a new painterly world trapped beneath a screen, hinting at the plethora of touch screens and TV monitors infiltrating our man made environment.

Reflections Art Gallery is free to visit and is located in the WearableArt & Classic Cars Museum, Cadillac Way off Quarantine Road Nelson. Cool Calm & Collected can be viewed daily 10am-5pm, until September 8.