An exhibition preview By Sue Hancock
To stand in the midst of the pictures being readied for James O'Brien's January exhibition, "Summer Break" (Point Lonsdale Surf Life Saving Club, 9-11 January 2009) is to get a very fresh view of things familiar. The paintings celebrate summer and the heat, the beach and the brilliant light of the sun on water evoke a world we all know from childhood. Even though the settings are distinctly those of Point Lonsdale and Queenscliff the impressions and the feelings generated in these pictures are universal.
Local viewers will delight in recognising particular places and experiences; strangers will feel that they too know these scenes.
It is a world that is both idyllic and real, full of a happiness that is reflected in the clear colours of O'Brien's palette. "I've had a fortunate life," O'Brien says. And fortune certainly smiles on these scenes, in all their ravishing colour and lively form.
Take the larger of the two paintings called "Effervescence" - here three girls rush into the water in a flurry of spray. They are purposeful, headed away from us towards the deeper water, out past the edge of the canvas. Light so brilliant that it is almost white breaks the water into sparkling surfaces and the girls run through this, unimpeded and free. "The question is," says O'Brien, "whether it is the girls who are giving the energy to this scene or whether their energy comes from the sea." As in all arresting images there is no answer, one way or the other to this. Both things are true. The girls move in harmony with the light and water and energy flows freely on every side.
In a more serene painting, "On the Way", a young girl playing tennis has just sent her ball through the air; she is caught in this movement and as the ball arcs away we get the sense that she is standing on the edge of teenage life, ready herself to take off. This is typical of the way O'Brien gets us to think and feel as we stand in front of the images. The event is a simple one, the painting is quiet, not drawing attention to itself. But gradually the deeper thoughts sink in.
Sometimes they have a more unsettling effect. In "Water Hazard" a golfer is just leaving the green. It is a hot early morning. Everything seems on the edge of wilting and fading; the golfer's face is hard to see, the swans at the edge of the water look tired. Only the water gleams with an uncanny blue light; it looks active, almost dangerous. Are we looking at something sinister in this homely scene?
There is certainly a sense of waiting and expectancy, a feeling that if you stand there long enough something unexpected will happen. It is not necessarily ominous. In two paintings that remind us of Norman Rockwell's famous covers for the Saturday Evening Post O'Brien presents us with an image of a building that is a converted church; in the full sun stand two empty chairs and a café table. The picture is called "Waiting" and we are invited to work out just what the title refers to - the chairs and table, the world of things without people - they seem almost conscious, more solid than we are, more present. The smaller of the two paintings present the table and chairs in detail and the title is "I'll be there soon!" A scene without characters - well, maybe we should say without human characters - it is deeply alive.
In contrast the painting called "The Enthusiasts" shows two local cyclists, hardly moving up the slight slope of the path. Behind them an empty railway line swiftly crosses the scene. The metal rails seem to have all the vigour and power.
In his constructing of his pictures O'Brien says that the characters emerge from the painting of what we usually think of as the background. He paints the landscapes first but he doesn't simply then paint the human figures on top of this. "I don't superimpose them," he says, showing an unfinished painting. There is a deep green landscape, a feathery blue sky. Emerging from the green are some shadowy outlines, parts of figures that will arise out of the depths of the painting and make their way towards the surface, gaining reality with every brushstroke. This is what gives O'Brien's figures their depth and their mysteriousness.
He is a painter of the mysteries of ordinary life. Yet these meanings never turn the pictures theoretical or abstract, although there are abstract elements in paintings like "Mosaic" and "Freight." Here the stacked containers on the deck of a large boat are pure colour abstractions, reminding us how easily the world we look at can turn itself into something alien.
And the sense of what is alien runs through nearly all these works - a slight turn in the way of seeing, often hinted by teasing titles, a slight shift in the colour range, and we are looking at the normal world made over so that it seems about to turn into a dream, one of those dreams where everything is super-clear.
This is witty, suggestive work. It has a wide appeal; the immediate pleasures of the images are followed and deepened by the ideas that begin to animate us as we stand and look through O'Brien's lens at a truly fascinating world. In "Perfect Light" O'Brien captures the magnificence of an early morning sky. Watching this, or so it seems, is the Point Lonsdale Lighthouse. The tower seems almost alive, almost conscious. The title invites us to decide which is the perfect thing here - the world of nature or the world made by man. Or, perhaps, it is both.
This is a fascinating collection of pictures that will add its own lively note to the Point Lonsdale summer scene.
Sue Hancock is described on the Black Pepper website as "Academic, philosopher and writer of emotional discourse". Born in New Zealand, she arrived in Australia in 1965 via study and work in UK and Uganda. After many years of academic life she is now enjoying writing fiction. [Black Pepper have published her first collection of short stories, Sailing Through the Amber]
To see some previous works by James O'Brien:
Gallery of James O'Brien Portraits
Gallery of James O'Brien Seascapes & Beaches
Gallery of James O'Brien's Community Life paintings
Return to James O'Brien Art Home Page
CV, Exhibitions and Awards - James O'Brien artist
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This exhibition preview © 2008 Sue Hancock
Images © 2008 James O'Brien Portraits & Seascapes
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