Keith Burt : Headland

Keith Burt

Headland 10 August – 3 September 2016

Keith Burt – Headland 2016 I don’t want a vista

There is a small painting Keith Burt has completed for this show and, at the time of writing, he was not sure if he would include it because, quite simply, it is one of his favourites. This painting, titled ‘Late’ depicts an inlet between the rocks at Point Arkwright in the late afternoon. The handling of the paint encapsulates all of the artist’s goals for this exhibition. He has used the abstract quality of loose handling, so often required for plein air painting, to blend over into intimations of abstraction per se, and he has gone about this in a number of ways. This approach is somewhat removed from the meticulousness of previous, recent work which is highly detailed and realist. That the shift seems so effortless is evidence of his consummate skill and sophistication.

There is a fairly strict rationale to the composition of the pictures; a flatness which nevertheless does not compromise the atmospheric depth required of a distant, rainy horizon. Burt rarely includes clouds in this series, and the gauzy skies are reminiscent of traditional Chinese landscape painting, where the scene often seems to float in a nebulous space. But he nearly always seeks to ground the pictures with the rock formations which work their way up the canvas before the sea takes the viewer into the distance. Colours are subtle and accurate, and the brushwork shows movement and layering along with a freedom that suggests the relentless continuum of the sea.

Despite the tension between surface and representation we are never left in any doubt of what it feels like to stand on the rocks at Point Arkwright during various weather conditions and when different seas are running. Burt has a keen eye; the elimination of detail never compromises depiction and this balance between the heaviness of rock and the movement of sea and light, between stasis and movement is sheer delight.

The spontaneity and discipline of the onsite paintings translate well into the larger studio works. Burt can both see well and move paint around in a way that is natural and full of life. This is no mean feat since translating small works that are guided by the ceaseless variety of the natural world into large works away from that realm often invokes risks of repetition and stiffness. This has not happened with these larger paintings. This is an artist whose work keeps giving; each viewing is a revelation.

David King 2016

Surge #2 Oil on canvas 137 x 137 cms $5250

Breach #2 Oil on canvas 137 x 137 cms $5250

Interval #3 Oil on canvas 137 x 167 cms $5550

Clear Oil on board 60 x 60 cms $2550

Sway #2 Oil on canvas 60 x 60 cms $2550

Point Oil on board 60 x 60 cms $2550

Blue Oil on board 60 x 60 cms $2550

Yield Oil on canvas 60 x 60 cms $2550

Surge #1 Oil on canvas 66 x 66 cms $2650

Closing Time Oil on canvas 30 x 60 cms $1750

Clear Sound Oil on canvas 30 x 60 cms $1750

Interval #1 Oil on canvas 30 x 40 cms $1550

Breach #1 Oil on canvas 40 x 40 cms $1750

Coast Oil on board 30 x 30 cms $1050

Drift

Opening

20 x 20 cms Oil on canvas $900

Arrival

Distance

Recede

Moment

20 x 20 cms Oil on canvas $900

Turmoil

Shallow

Sway#1

Cycle

15 x 15 cms Oil on board $720

Alcove 40 x 20 Oil on board $1100

Late 10 x 20 cms Oil on board $720