 |
 |
|
|
The Press, Christchurch John Emery calls them "scraps and fragments." I call them small evocative masterpieces of observation. Emery's art is currently compulsive viewing at Christchurch's Centre of Contemporary Art where the American artist's meticulous watercolours become a wondrous fossick through memory and experience; a journal of life's richer experiences painted by a man with the brush of an angel and the mental acquisitiveness of a magpie. Even the show's title, Tight Lines, is a clue to Emery's inspirations. The jewel-like shapes and textures of rainbow trout are placed against a mosaic of old notebooks, faded papers, postcards, maps and gloriously baroque curlicues of string. Emery gives us images with the merest hint of sentiment and a slight bow to the great tradition of trompe d'oeil painting. A definite must-see of an exhibition. © 2004 John Emery |
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
|
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
|
|