Fitzroy Library - 128 Moor Street, Fitzroy
22 April - 23 June 2006
Outback Motif 4, acrylic on canvas, 40 cm x 80 cm, 2006
Review by Cressida Fox
Born Scotland 1947, Stephen Phillis migrated to Australia in 1965. Currently living in Maldon, central Victoria, he has a strong feeling for the Australian landscape in its many forms and colours. Initially he painted impressionist-expressionist depictions of old towns, buildings and landscapes. As he developed and broadened his style, he included beach and sea scapes, scenes of beach life and other material. His most recent work shows a stylistic change to more abstracted landscapes, giving him more freedom of expression with his subjects.
Ten pieces from one of Stephen’s current series, Outback Motif, are hanging in Fitzroy Library till 23 June. Each one depicts an aspect the Australian Outback. Of his work, he writes: “Although no event or place depicted is photographically accurate, there is an acknowledgement of seeing the familiar, the customary, and yet all is somehow verdant, unorthodox, askew.” His palette is simple but dynamic: intense reds offset by soft to mid blues, with touches of black, white and orange. The ‘motifs’ are not obvious: in Outback Motif 4 the red soil is offset by blue areas that could be a waterhole, a road or field or patch of ground mist, dotted with scrub or trees. In Outback Motif 7 the red earth and blue sky are broken up by black forms that could be trees or scrub. In Outback Motif 8 there are also hints of buildings and structures - blocks and solid areas of colour with some fine white lines - and two small white birds. In Outback Motif 3 and 5, the blue skies and/or waters disappear, and the red earth is marked with trees, scrub and other shapes in black and grey. Different places and maybe different seasons? Study in Green & Black I is one of two works which comes from another series - also landscapes, but from another region. Here the green trees are prominent and the red earth is replaced by black, white and blue-green.
I found these works very appealing. As well as being good works, they are also very modestly priced and I am not surprised that we have already sold a couple.
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