A NOTE on the catalogue sheet says these paintings "explore the tenuous relationship between nature and culture". At times, it is hard not to feel the relationship between them and such an area may be equally tenuous certainly, the treatment is elliptical and allusive, even playful, and leaves the viewer to fill out between the lines (and colours).
The first and easily the largest picture in the exhibition is called Little Western World, which I gather was triggered by a 19th century American illustrated chart showing the progress of the Mormons (chiefly, I presume, in the American West). It is partly in a mock naive style, and against a "nature" background the artist places small, mostly isolated figures - an angler, men on horseback, two mean shovelling sand, a single figure urinating, an ecstatic monk borrowed from a well known Bellini painting, etc. Though there is more than a touch of preciosity and intellectual gamesmanship, there is also enough flair and humour to bring it off.
The other pictures are small (24 inches by 24) and many employ the format (rather overworked at the moment) of dots of colour detached from their" g round". Some of these dots, to give them extra presence, are made of gesso and so stand out more. The titles have nature references (Landscape Painting, Wetland and the like) and obviously the connections are clear and strong in the painter's mind; the viewer, however, may miss the point and see little more than a series of nicely painted "dot" pictures. An obvious exception is Journey Up The Zambesi And Back, where the scattered, blobby shapes obviously refer (to the water lilies and other flora which, I am told, cluster over Africa's great rivers.
Perhaps the most interesting exhibit, however, is the "micro installation" called A Project For A Wood With Picnic Area. It is a large cube of living, damp turf with miniature trees, a stretch of green sward and a tiny picnic table with benches. Plainly, Blaise Drummond has a real flair for landscape design; the Board of Works might think of giving him his head in this area. Or would it ever consider employing a young artist?
