PATHWAYS

PATHWAYS is Bruce Treloar's first solo exhibition in eight years. Long known for works of vibrancy, texture and a highly recognisable style of his own, this offering embodies and extends familiar subject matter. Paintings of childhood summers, both past and present are captured in confident brushstrokes against impasto skies of turquoise blue. Coromandel shores and Pacific Island settings play their part.

Tivaevae, the large, colourful cotton throws loving hand-sewn and unique to the Cook Islands are an art form in themselves. In a Matisse-like manner, Treloar draws upon the various organic shapes chosen by the Cook Island women in these unique and beautiful tapestries of Polynesia. Treloar unites cultures and hemispheres in this well-rounded collection of twenty joyful works.

Bruce Treloar graduated from Elam School of Fine Art in 1970 and is currently based in Auckland. He is widely travelled, and has lived and worked in the South Pacific for extended periods.

Many years were spent in Sydney painting and lecturing. Due to the nomadic nature of his lifestyle, writing and illustrating books became his preferred medium. His children's books set in coastal Australia, or the South Pacific, explore universal themes. They have won numerous Australian awards. His illustrations are housed in the Lu Reeves archives in Canberra, and the Dromkeen Foundation in Melbourne.

A few works eschew the conventions of perspective, allowing figures, symbols and colours a freer form of association. Colour is the common language of all these works and it is the deep and sensuous use of colour that creates a world of its own.