Where the Wild Roses Grow

16 February - 7 March 2007

“Walking through wild roses I spread out the first canvas and repainted the landscape and then it really began to rain.” Wayne Seyb

The art and practice of Christchurch based artist Wayne Seyb belongs to a long tradition of painting that stretches back to Toss Woollaston, to van der Velden before him, and back to its origins in both the Impressionist and Expressionist schools in nineteenth century Europe. To artists who were to a certain extent adventurers, or at least ventured into the landscape with art making tools in hand, who sat before nature, breathed it in and then infused the waiting canvas with their response to the scene.

‘Where the Wild Roses Grow’ is a body of work Seyb created in close and direct contact with the rugged landscapes in the immediate vicinity of Wanaka in the early summer, when rain dogged his footsteps but cleared or partially cleared long enough for the execution of some fine paintings. There is a sense in each work that the landscape not only exists beyond the frame but is waiting almost impatiently in the wings to burst in, so vivid are the colours and bold the brushstrokes. The water colours, in particular, resonate strongly with the practice of Impressionist painters who worked en plein air, observing the ever changing properties of light as it streamed over the mountains, trees and rivers creating depth and shadow which can become at any given instant, light and sparkle.

A pleasing visual interplay exists between the water colours and Seyb’s oil paintings which are executed in his bold, gestural signature style. The medium of oil allows Seyb to build layers and layers of paint to form a surface of thick impasto comprising sweeping strokes punctuated by deft shorter, sharp bursts of colour. It is in these paintings that an aesthetic relationship to Seyb’s companion practice of woodcut works can be easily made. He employs the same direct approach, economy of line and vigorous stroke which creates an ongoing conversation between the many strings of his artistic practice.

Seyb’s style is rightly described as ‘Expressionist’, in which an economy or exaggeration of form executed in a typically impassioned or raw manner by means of strident colour and brushstroke, is used to express a response to, or feeling of place. One senses Seyb’s affinity to the land forms he paints and a deep respect for the land and climate that even today hold sway over our lives, and the ways in which we interact with the natural world around us.

Where the Wild Roses Grow, 2006
Oil on canvas, 970 x 1210 mm
$4,000

The Peninsula, 2006
Oil on canvas, 965 x 1210 mm
$4,000

From Ironside's Hill, 2006
Oil on canvas, 965 x 1210 mm
$4,000

Pisa and Criffel Ranges, 2006
Oil on canvas, 965 x 1210 mm
$4,000

SOLD

The Lindis Pass, 2006
Oil on canvas, 760 x 1695 mm
$4,000

Waterfall, 2006
Oil on canvas, 1040 x 645 mm
$3,000

Lake Wanaka, 2006
Oil on canvas, 1040 x 645 mm
$3,000

SOLD

Tarras, 2006
Oil on canvas, 1035 x 645 mm
$3,000