John Walsh: New Paintings / 15 September - 9 October 2009

The eight paintings in this exhibition each have their own story to tell, yet they are all connected through style, landscape and the artist’s exquisite colouring.
The story begins with Pare to my place - painted when John Walsh was in China earlier this year. The central figure in the pare (lintel) is surrounded by what Walsh calls 'companion monsters'. These figures assist the main character in his job of defending the landscape beyond and are based on god sticks. The background landscape hinted at in this painting is fully realised in both The National Bank and Auckland City Council Meeting, yet the journey you take through and between each painting is personal and there is no specific order of viewing. Walsh believes that is there is no one story in his works and enjoys people telling him what they see in his creations.

Walsh’s titles appeal and provide insight into the story. Mothish, for example, is titled after the relationship between the two figures. The warrior is very much a moth to the flame of the glowingly beautiful woman across the water. Such descriptive titles add an extra layer to the paintings and help the viewer understand the artist’s intention. The positive energy that emits from the works in the exhibition is highlighted in They're from up North, very quiet people, in the John Leech Gallery display window. The floating boat is navigated with quiet confidence by the bird, tied the vessel, and the foreground figure carefully steering.  This sense of confidence is important to Walsh and gives him the feeling that although steering a levitating boat across land may seem like “it’s an impossible thing, they might make it”.

John Walsh paints downwards, constructing the most distant points first and then works forwards. This technique allows the image to progress on its own terms and Walsh has found that it sometimes means the end result of a painting does not necessarily match his initial vision. In terms of subject and composition, “a lot of the time it’s where the brush takes me,” he says.