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ANDERSON, Judy
A Breath Of Fresh Art
Review, Weekend Bulletin, PARADISE, p.31
January 7-8, 2006
In a world that wants more and wants it faster, Hobie Porter's Quiet message cuts through the haste. It sidesteps our information overload to offer the viever the opportunity to be still and engage.
Urgent Calm, the title of his current exhibition at the Tweed River Art Gallery, suggests an intriguing contradiction in terms. Porter's painted images remind us of the real urgency; to repair our disjointed relationship with the planet we inhabit, to imagine our present and future condition as one of interconnection.
Although coined 'Enviro Dali' by a friend, Porter's work appears less surreal and more emblematic in its intention. Although it suggests metamorphosis and continuity, his poetic images slide between the sacred and the everyday, cleverly courting, yet bypassing cliche.
Meticulously painted on linen on panel in the manner of the old masters,the eye delights in its own deception.The sensual surface invites a close viewing of intimate detail. Like looking closely at a lover's skin, one lingers over delicately nuanced colour in the clouds, the sensitive painterly brush strokes tracing the hand of the artist.
In Vessel of Torment, the broken fragments of a vessel hover heroically in a night sky.
"A gust of wind blew a vase off my table, I noticed how, in its broken state, I was relating to it differently, as if it had become something larger than it was. The scattered vessel is held in the night sky, it returns to the stars"
Porter depicts events or transitionsmore than specific things or places, an event whereby one thing becomes something other.
The barely noticed transition of falling leaves or the shattering of an old vase takes on a grand scale in his work.
Alluding to a sense of something missing in daily life, he says "I think there's an absence of rapture in our lives. It's hard to access. In the past it was accessed through philosophical and spiritual conditions such as romanticism and religion, but these are tired conditions now.
"If my images contain within them iconic elements of the sacred, then I'm doing it within a contemporary setting, to evoke contemplation on ecology."
He agrees that it is the sense of calm and quietude in his work that enhances its impact, that allows the urgency to be felt, lending it an 'audible voice'.
"For me, a painting is an offering. It has been so for centuries. Art in today's age is used for so many purposes, and is crowded by other technological and intellectual innovations."
Gallery Director Gary Corbett acclaims Urgent Calm, Porter's first solo exhibition. "Hobie Porter is an emerging artist of great talent with a keen eye for the minutiae of life, coupled with a marvellous technical skill which is breathtaking.
His highly resolved images are worth the wait and worth the time it takes to create them. Both the form and feel of his work lure the viewer.
"I've developed patience. My studio space is tranquil. I tend to play music while I'm working - retrograde stuff like Beethoven, Biber, Vivaldi."
Eighteen months in the making, Urgent Calm is the outcome of intensive study of the work of the old masters such as Luis Melendez, Caravaggio and Vermeer.
One inspirational teacher, Pam Tippet, told him to go home and paint white eggs in a white bowl, which set him on a year's journey to learn how to paint in an observational way without the aid of photography.
Author: Judy Anderson
Departure, oil on panel on linen, 40x60cm,2004