Complementary Compositions

COLIN SMITH

BALANCING ACT: Abstract painter Errol Shaw and photographic artist Cindy Flook are exhibiting together tat Reflections Gallery.

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It takes about 15 minutes to get a photograph of Errol Shaw and Cindy Flook that they are both happy with. They have very different ways of going about their work. They want it to be just right.

This is why Reflections Gallery director Marian Wolfs thought they would work well together. Shaw taught Flook at the Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology eight years ago, so they know and respect one another. But Wolfs says they also have a certain "attention to detail''.

The comment relates to the treatment of colour in their work  and they go about it in very different ways.
Shaw is an abstract painter and Flook a photographer, but she is quick to point out her photography is quite painterly. "They look more like paintings than traditional photography.''

Flook started photography more out of practicality. While she was studying towards a masters degree in fine art in Melbourne, she found it was easier to carry a camera around than it was to carry an easel and canvas. "So I became a photographer.''

But her point of difference is that she prints on to large sheets of aluminium that glimmer in the light.
"As soon as the light hits the photograph it comes alive. It changes as you walk past it slowly. It is like time passing, it gives it a sense of duration which you don't necessarily get with painting.''

Shaw has always been interested in the buildup of colour to create a sense of musical rhythm in his work. Within his notes are vast tables of colour charts that relate to how he puts his brush upon the canvas. It is meticulous, orchestrated and complicated.
"It's like listening to a song that is built up with layers. At any one time in a song only a few moments are remembered.'" In his works only a small area can be picked up but they belong to a larger composition.

"The red and the green could be guitar or drums. As Sonny Rollins once said, 'Jazz is a different rainbow every night'.''

Flook, who recently won photographic art awards in Otago and Taranaki, also takes an interest in the smaller parts of her composition. She takes a landscape and frames a small section of it.

"With a landscape, people usually think about a large expanse but I focus on one aspect. It becomes up to the interpretation of the person looking at it. The viewer can imagine the rest.''

• Cindy Flook and Errol Shaw at Reflections Art Gallery at the World of WearableArt & Classic Cars Museum from November 20 to December 21.

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