Combined local exhibition at Suter Art Gallery
Sage Cox with a recent work.
Golden Bay artists Sage Cox and Geoffrey Heath have combined their passion for landscape painting in an exhibition of their latest works, Bay and Beyond, which opened last Tuesday (February 3) at the Suter Art Gallery in Nelson.
Opening it the previous evening, Nelson identity Christopher Vine said both artists were well known for their bold takes on their immediate Golden Bay environment, and that these new works revealed some fresh inspiration from forays into new terrain.
For Geoffrey Heath, this included a five-day art sojourn out on Farewell Spit with 11 other artists back in late 2007. "To sit on a sand hill and just look, paint and draw was a mind-blowing experience. Just magic! Then to return to the lighthouse-keeper's dwelling each evening and discuss the day's discoveries over an evening meal was something that will remain in my mind forever," he recalls.
Another trip, this time to Aitutaki in the Cook Islands, provided for Geoffrey a different world of turquoise lagoons, white sands and rough coral reefs backed by the ultramarine of the Pacific beyond. "The vibrant greens and riotous colour of the tropical foliage provided such a stark contrast to the more muted shades of the our flora here in New Zealand. There were some amazing sights, like when the strong winds flailed the coconut palms against the deep purple skies."
His paintings are in oils and acrylics, some a mix of both, an unusual technique. "I found, though, that it was the oils that best portrayed aspects of coral textures and tropical foliage, especially the coconut palms."
Born in Nelson, Geoffrey spent his early days in Motueka and was educated at Nelson Boys College. After attending Canterbury School of Fine Arts and graduating from Auckland Teacher's College in 1961, he taught at various high schools (Burnside, Nayland and Cashmere) until becoming senior lecturer in Art at the Christchurch College of Education in 1985. In December 1989, Geoffrey and wife Jenny moved to Whatanihi in Pelorus Sound, where he set up as a full-time artist before moving to Wakefield and then Pohara in 2006.
With her works, Sage Cox went out to capture the essence of diverse landscapes across the top of the South Island, her mission to emphasise some of the more threatening and imposing qualities of the landforms.
She explains: "My paintings are neither truly representational, nor truly abstract. They hover between, with a slight distortion in scale to create a tension." In some of the works she has used a raised perspective, along with a high horizon, to encompass more than the usual eye's view of a landscape. "This creates a kind of rhythm," she adds. All her works are in oils.
Sage was born in Sheffield, England. Her father was in the navy, so much of her childhood was spent moving from place to place. After three years stationed in Malta, the family settled in the west coast of Scotland where her Italian art teacher inspired her. Although her fascination was fabrics and quilts, along with painting, she ended up studying occupational therapy in Oxford and London. At 22 she moved to the Canadian prairies, where she resumed her interest in fabrics again. It was on a trip across Canada, at Prince Edward Island, that she met Richard, her husband. After building a log house in a maple sugar wood, planting an oak forest and producing Toby, they moved to New Zealand in 1986 to escape the long snowy winters.
Since then, Sage and Richard have built five more houses, had three more children and planted thousands more trees. As her children grew, Sage began to concentrate on her painting. At first she painted on silk using strong, bold colours. Her sun-filled studio by the sea near Patons Rock is a long way from the garage she once used. Her vibrant still-life paintings are even available in a gallery in Hawaii, while her New Zealand greeting card images are marketed by Oxted Publications. She now works almost exclusively in oils.
Their exhibition, in the McKee Gallery of the Suter, runs until 22 February.
Gerard Hindmarsh
