Elusive Forms solo show at Scott Lawrie Gallery

Shed 10, 13 Coles Avenue

Mt Eden, Auckland 1024

Aotearoa New Zealand

As one of the more interesting contemporary abstract landscape painters in Australia, Clare Brodie’s work is worthy of a little more time to look at, and connect with. These are not so much landscapes of place (although they have been inspired by particular places) they are also landscapes of the mind. Paintings that are both deceptively simple, and conspicuously sophisticated – tapping into our unconscious and connecting us to moments of solitude and calm, peace and harmony.

When I first encountered Clare’s work in Sydney – in a show which quickly sold out – I couldn’t ‘place’ them easily. Was this Op-art? Landscape? Or colour field abstraction? Either way, they were certainly a breath of fresh air, giving me an instant escape from the stress and tension of modern life and the ‘smack between the eyeballs’ attention-grab of many contemporary artworks these days. Her paintings were gentler, more introspective and timeless, yet they resonated with an extraordinary energy that made them stand out.

In this, her first New Zealand solo show, Clare offers us a gentle and subtle connection to nature; each hue exhaustively tested and mixed again and again until the abstracted forms meld together as a unified and satisfying whole.