Allusion and Illusion: Kees Bruin Retrospective

The Noble People, Treasured Land exhibition at Anderson Park is going very well, thank you. Good sales and lovely comments from those visiting. The exhibition ends this Sunday, 30th April. If you visit or live in Southland, I hope you will stop in.

One of the persons to whom I attribute quite a bit of influence on my style is someone I've discovered in the last year, New Zealand artist Kees Bruin. His influence on my art will probably be more evident in my future works. I am simply in awe of Bruins mastery and style of painting. He brands his style as Visionary Superrealism. To the best I understand it, he uses photographs to as a reference point or a beginning and pushes the realms of reality.

Bill and I decided to treat ourselves by making the long journey to Christchurch (clear from the bottom of the South Island) to see his work up close and personal at Christchurch Art Gallery .

It was well worth the trouble. It was like finally being able to meet a longtime penpal with whom you've mailed photos back and forth. Actually, in this day and age, more like finally meeting someone you meet on the internet. In other words, the photos on his website, KeesBruin.com are wonderful. But in person...I simply couldn't speak for the first several minutes upon viewing them. The only real "problem" is that there were so many other admirers present that day, it was difficult to get a full unobstructed view. But, I was so happy to see so many made the extra effort to see this outstanding exhibition on Anzac Day.

Discovering Mr. Bruin's style has caused me to reexamine my approach to painting. I don't see myself going for his hyperrealistic style, but I enjoy the "visionary" aspect of his paintings. I now plan to approach my paintings by asking myself even more questions before I put brush to canvas. By asking and answering questions before I start painting, I have found a lot of freedom during the actual painting process. Adding the visionary aspect to those questions and answers is the direction I plan to take for now. Watch and stay tuned.

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