Coinciding as it does with the period when Smither was preoccupied with Christian subjects such as the Stations of the Cross, Pentecost, St Francis, Baptism of Christ in a Taranaki Stream, and making a sculpture of the titular saint for St Paul’s Roman Catholic Church in Spotswood, it is easy to anthropomorphise the rock forms and falling water in this painting into a cloaked human figure, perhaps even an image of the crucified Christ. The artist’s signature and date are hidden at bottom right in the shadow of an overhanging stone so as not to disrupt the loose brushwork of water flowing out towards the viewer. Streaks of teal represent the crystalline clarity of the stream as it descends through the composition, and Smither differentiates the five elements which comprise the work - sky, wood, tussock, stone and water – with changes in his brushwork.

Ostensibly, this painting depicts the Waiwhakaiho River which flows northeast from its origin in the melting snows of Taranaki Maunga, then veers northwest to reach the Tasman Sea near Fitzroy, but the subject is really a close study of the shapes of the rocks. As a motif, these greywacke boulders follow on from the rock pool paintings of 1964 and recur in works such as Rocks, The Gables, New Plymouth (1965), The Stony River. (1967) and Stony River and Tractors (1967) which focus on aspects of the Hangatāhua river which originates in the Ahukawakawa Swamp on Mt Taranaki and flows to the Tasman Sea near Ōkato.

Smither’s fascination with painting boulders reaches its apotheosis in Rocks with Mountain (1968, Auckland Art Gallery) where the stones seem to take on the shape of molars grinding against each other, a morphology perhaps precipitated by the recurrent toothache which was plaguing him at the time. The luminosity of the stones is the result of his intense study of their shapes in which he “came to realise that the light was coming out of them - as though they were light bulbs, or like egg-shells leaning up against one another. They were really very fragile”.

Dating from 1966, in the middle of this rocky period, Mountain Stream, Taranaki deploys Smither’s characteristic low viewpoint to relegate the characteristic form of the old Alfred Road bridge and the maunga itself to the top strip of the painting. They remain signatures of place in true regionalist style, but rather than taking centre stage in the composition, the mountain is truncated, cut off above its base with the unusual framing typical of modernist photography or Japanese prints. Visiting New Plymouth this year, the eminent Australian art historian Bernard Smith recognised the remarkable originality of the 27 year old Taranaki artist’s work and organised an exhibition of 60 of Smither’s paintings in Melbourne, writing in The Age newspaper how the paintings evinced “a great feeling of space and energy. It takes spiritual courage to see New Zealand that way.”

LINDA TYLER

Private Collection, Auckland
Purchased from John Leech Gallery by present owner