John Bevan Ford and Julia Morison

Back in January, when I was exploring Tauranga, I went to the Tauranga Art Gallery and they had an exhibition on two well-known Kiwi artists. Again, as with other parts of the country, it was free entry with the option of a donation, which makes me want to pay because I like being given the choice.

It took me two days to get through the exhibitions. There were others of Samoan artists, but the ones that impressed me the most were the Kiwi works.

I absolutely fell in love with John Bevan Ford's work. He believed in the land and it's mana, or prestige. He used a lot of Maori symbolism in his work and most importantly (in my perspective) he "painted" with such incredible detail that I would stand in front of one of his paintings for a good 10 minutes, just looking at the detail. He specialized in using felt pen and pencil to draw tiny little lines, kind of like pointilism (I think that's the word, where tiny little dots create an image once you've stepped back to take a broader look at it). He did that with tiny little squiggly lines and it awed me. My favorite painting, "Flying Clouds", is huge and amazing but I couldn't find a representation of it on the net. Below are some of his works.

John Bevan Ford


Also on exhibit were works by artist Julia Morison. She's quite interesting. I believe she has a background in design and you can see the exactness of her lines and the almost sterility of her approach to the work. I didn't feel the passion, but the discipline? Yes, very much. The particular exhibit was called Myriorama which was a card game played during the Victorian period. The idea is being able to join different panels together in a multitude of ways and have the pieces still fit together. An interesting concept (hopefully I understood it correctly).

Below, some of her work, though not the exact works from that exhibition. Same style, though.

Julia Morison