Blooming exhibit mimics range of floral encounters
By Victoria Gail-White
Advertiser Art Critic
ABOVE: "White Lily with Spots," an oil on canvas by Barbara Engle, is done in her typical subdued palette. Photos courtesy of Honolulu Academy of Art
It is so decadent to walk into an alcove of a larger gallery and indulge in a small exhibit of exquisite paintings. Like a small box of rich chocolate truffles, it entices you to savor each one.
TOP: "Night Blooming Cereus," an oil on canvas by Shirley Russell, is among the works being exhibited through May 11 at the Honolulu Academy of Arts' John Dominis and Patches Damon Holt Gallery for the Arts of Hawai'i.
"Flora Exotica" is a sensuous exhibit, thoughtfully selected, in a rare combination of media and styles that infuse it with visual flavors.
Engravings, paintings (oil, acrylic and watercolor) and woodcut prints present a range of interpretations of botanical flowers drawn from
the Honolulu Academy of Arts' holdings of Hawai'i works that is both reflective and invigorating. Granted, we all have different experiences of flowers; this exhibit's handful of artists reveal how differently we interpret what we see.
The more botanical offerings — Geraldine King Tam's "African Tulip Tree" (1998), watercolor on paper, with its intense controlled details and saturation of flaming oranges, and the black ink engraving after Mrs. Parnelly P. Andrews' "Night Blooming Cereus" (1840), a symmetrical rendition of the cactus flower — are situated near two distinct floral interpretations of the "Cup of Gold" by Shirley Russell. One, an oil on canvas (1967) is done in a Cubist style with thin paint layers.
The other, a color woodcut (1930), is a quiet composition of controlled elegance with soft hints of color connected to John Melville Kelly Sr.'s aquatints from the same period.
Russell's life-sized "Night Blooming Cereus" (undated) has the energy of Van Gogh's sunflowers, with strong, powerful brush strokes and deep, mellifluous centers.
Close examination exposes the artist's talent to render the flowers alive; bees could be deceived if they flew too close.
Through May 11 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays; 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Sundays Honolulu Academy of Arts Holt Gallery 532-8701
Barbara Engle's oil "White Lily with Spots" (1979) shows the tasteful, subdued, earthy palette of aubergines, celadon greens, siennas and blues featured in many of her paintings.
'Floral Exotica: Hawai'i's Flowers'
The painting "Vili Vili" (late 1930s), with its branch of persimmon-colored flowers by Alfred Thornwald Hurm, ink on silk mounted on a scroll, is reserved, while Winnifred Hudson's floral abstract oil "Plant Life and Light" (1970) exudes the jumbled floral order of a garden with its abstract mosaic blocks of bright, clear dancing colors.
The work of Juanita Vitousek is strangely familiar. "Torch Ginger" (1935), a watercolor on paper, has a strength and simple beauty echoed by many painters of this genre in Hawai'i today. It is hard to believe it was painted 68 years ago.
Finally, the soft greens in Sueko Kimura's "Lost Garden" (1964), oil on canvas, a fusion of Japanese brush and Western-style painting, reveal a luminous orb inside a leafy enclosure. The magical,
lyrical quality of the composition evokes a metaphor of our own lost dreams and the light we need to find them.
The exhibit will coincide with the biannual exhibit of the Garden Club of Hawaii, April 25i27.
