Gill Gatfield - 'En Plein Air'
Front Gallery, 25th February–15th March 2009
In En Plein Air, Gill Gatfield presents paintings of live grass and magnetic fields. The exhibition’s title, taken from the French term 'in the open air', describes the practice of painting outdoors, working under natural light. The artist notes: ‘Painting en plein air changed the essence of landscape painting, enabling a direct connection between reality and its representation. The early practice of painting outdoors coincided with the settlement of NZ, when land was tamed and carved into sections, and was later adopted by modernist painters seeking to represent a distinct NZ landscape.’
Gatfield considers these elements in En Plein Air. In the lawn works, the exterior landscape becomes the material, subject and object of painting. ‘Outside’ is brought ‘inside’ to make painting. Likewise, the magnetic pin paintings tilt the earth's pull to a vertical plane, in a finely tuned balance of gravity and weight. Through minimalist forms and simple materials, the works reveal complex relationships between image and representation, object and meaning, abstraction and nature.