Thanks to Notes to the Milkman, I went to have a look today at Gerry Halpin's solo exhibition Vantage Point, the current show at The Gallery at St George's House. This time I found the whole screen set-up less distracting, when I knew that around every corner was the same artist - in fact I even quite liked it as a sort of voyage of discovery, but I might at some point in the future deny that I ever thought that, because I still find it unnervingly un-gallery-like (which might, I suppose, be the point?).
The pictures, I liked. The premise was quite simple - landscapes viewed from the air, and necessarily quite impressionistic due to the restrictions of time available over any given patch. Some of the images were hauntingly familiar, such as Night Landing 1 - a sprinkling of lights across a deep blue background, like looking down on stars from above - while others felt more abstracted, without any knowledge to anchor them. I read the artist's statement and don't remember if there was any mention of whether the landscapes were 'real' or more imaginatively constructed, but in front of several of the works I found myself longing for reference points - even a country would be a start.
The artist says 'My particular visual interest is in looking at places where different geological features meet, expecially where the sea confronts the land', and I did particularly like Breakers II and Coastal Edge. But then I also particularly liked Strata (though it was one of the pieces I didn't quite get), Crimson Flow and maybe most of all Winter Landscape II. Colour was everywhere and mostly it was fantastic. I was intrigued by the little collections of tiny gold boxes next to the artist's signature on many of the paintings. Maybe there was a system to them, a code?
I couldn't find any of the pics from the exhibition, but the one below gives you a very good flavour, and you can always look at more at the Gallery or on Gerry Halpin's website.
The pictures, I liked. The premise was quite simple - landscapes viewed from the air, and necessarily quite impressionistic due to the restrictions of time available over any given patch. Some of the images were hauntingly familiar, such as Night Landing 1 - a sprinkling of lights across a deep blue background, like looking down on stars from above - while others felt more abstracted, without any knowledge to anchor them. I read the artist's statement and don't remember if there was any mention of whether the landscapes were 'real' or more imaginatively constructed, but in front of several of the works I found myself longing for reference points - even a country would be a start.
The artist says 'My particular visual interest is in looking at places where different geological features meet, expecially where the sea confronts the land', and I did particularly like Breakers II and Coastal Edge. But then I also particularly liked Strata (though it was one of the pieces I didn't quite get), Crimson Flow and maybe most of all Winter Landscape II. Colour was everywhere and mostly it was fantastic. I was intrigued by the little collections of tiny gold boxes next to the artist's signature on many of the paintings. Maybe there was a system to them, a code?
I couldn't find any of the pics from the exhibition, but the one below gives you a very good flavour, and you can always look at more at the Gallery or on Gerry Halpin's website.
Deep blue sea
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