Landscapes with extra dimensions

The problem - if that very inadequate word will pass - of reconciling landscape painting of a specific type with the autonomous…

The problem - if that very inadequate word will pass - of reconciling landscape painting of a specific type with the autonomous energy of Abstract Expressionist brushwork has been faced by a succession of serious artists going back at least as far as Ivon Hitchens. It has been tackled by Sean McSweeney, for instance, by Tony O'Malley; and Nancy Wynne-Jones has made her own very individual contribution to the dialogue.

Working in Wicklow, in an area full of trees and small hills, she paints a predominantly leafy landscape. There are also, however, pictures produced by the much barer, more basic countryside of the western seaboard and even - surprise - a small, green, intimate picture of Yeats's Lake Isle of Innisfree. The smaller pictures, in general, are more traditional and figurative - they give the feeling of being virtually direct transcripts or impressions - whereas the relatively abstract works are denser, more mysterious and more imagistic, with much "happening" internally.

The image of a pond flanked by trees is recurrent, giving a kind of circular current to the compositions, but also opening up resonant inner spaces. There is even a mythic note here, suggesting (if this is not too fanciful or literary) some Avernus-like mouth or cave to the underworld. The lyrical, almost lush tonalities don't exclude an element of the shadowy and even of the macabre.

On a purely sensuous level, however, these paintings are extremely beautiful and immediate in their appeal. In certain cases, there is a feeling that a basic landscape sensibility and the urge to make strong, abstract "marks" are pulling in contrary directions. In general, however, these two currents are reconciled with real authority and originality, and Nancy Wynne-Jones remains one of the lessening tribe of painters who respect belle peinture and have the flair and technique to achieve it consistently.

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Until October 25th.