THE ANNUAL exhibition of the Water Colour Society seems to follow closely the fortunes of the RHA exhibition both hit low points last year, and have made a recovery in this one.
If the 1996 show is scarcely laden with major talents, it keeps a presentable level and is well above the slightly anachronistic, quasi-amateur look of last year. There may be no Nano Reid on view, but there is no orgy of Sunday painting either.
Brigid Ganly, a good "academic" in the traditional sense, shows good, neat small landscape pastels (the term "watercolour" is used elastically). Thomas Ryan and Eric Patton, familiar figures in the RHA shows, are both very much at home in the medium, while the close up, almost monumental quality of Elisabeth O'Brien's flower pieces is impressive.
Monah Parkes shows a large, light filled, rather Bonnardish gouache of a female nude by a window. Terence Gayer (better known for his woodcuts) has a freedom from convention which is refreshing, while Gerard Davis seems totally at home in the medium of the monoprint. I also liked the boldness of Anthony Malin's Giller's Salmon and Patrick Muldowney's Caribbean Lady.
Other names I noted were Vivienne Baldwin, Kay Doyle, Valerie Empey, Eleanor Harbison, Reginald Hobbs, Denis O'Sullivan, Catriona O'Connor, Chris Reid, Mavis Thompson, George Walsh, Edythe Flood. It is a quiet show, traditional and even conventional as usual, but mercifully it is not dull or insipid.