The reflection of the world around us and the images painters create from their surroundings underpins this exhibition.
Bridget Bidwill and Andree de Latour share a common artistic heritage, they both graduated from the Ilam School of fine Arts at Canterbury University in the 1970s. Their styles of painting are unique from each other but at the same time they share many stylistic similarities. Andree’s paintings often reflect the landscape, drawing on a rich visual vocabulary that is inspired by the countryside, hills and rugged southern coast of the Wairarapa. Bridgets’ painting is almost totally abstract but hints at a reality showing glimpses of still-life, interiors and the natural world. Her images feel foreign yet familiar and evoke feeling and thought without telling a specific story.
The aesthetic and painterly qualities that both artists share is the same intense attention to detail. The considered colour palettes and the carefully finished surfaces of their paintings create a rich patina - they seem old but new, conservative but contemporary and simple, yet complex. They invite and engage the viewer to create their own sense of space, their own emotional response and hopefully, leave a touch of mystery.
