Kristian Lomath: Chasing the Sun

Kristian, who is based in Rotorua, is known for his large paintings in oils on loose canvas and more recently for his very well received and critically acclaimed 'Bookwork' series.

Kristian's palette of rich colour in oils envelops the senses completely - a real wow moment when I saw some of them recently completed in his studio earlier this year.

 Most of the new paintings in this exhibition are smaller than his earlierworks on extra large loose canvases.

Kristian at work preparing for his exhibition.

Over the past six years, Kristian's work has evolved from landscape to mindscape.

Kristian’s inspiration comes from nature and social networks, intertwined with the known and the unknown.

He feels he now includes more of the external world, and people, within his work with places and forms revealed and concealed in the process.

Painting is how Kristian makes meaning and sense of the world.

Kristian’s abstracts are richly layered in oils, and worked in a multiplicity of shades, hues, and sizes.

He describes the painting process as experimental and exploratory, “letting paint do its thing”.

Kristian seeks elusive answers to equally elusive questions in an intense experience of discovery and rediscovery.

He says it’s like chasing the wind, chasing the sun.

The genesis of these works is to be found when Kristian was living in the small farming community of Ngakura, in the North Island of New Zealand.

"I want people to move through their form, spaces and colour, get lost in the paintings, allowing the images to unfold the stories within; to set a ground that can be overlaid and placed or displaced with other stories and sagas that they themselves know,” he says.

Untitled'  920mm x 1230mm  Oil on board  2013.

To me Kristian's paintings bring to mind the work of the great Australian painter Ian Fairweather (1891-1974) whose art I saw some years ago.

His large paintings shone with a wonderful painterly luminosity and had a profound visceral impact on me in the same way I know Kristian's pieces will when they are on show in Gallery 59.  

In addition to his painting, Kristian is the keeper of Art Expo Gallery in Rotorua.

Art Expo Gallery, in downtown Eruera Street, is well worth a visit next time you're in Rotorua. 

"Chasing the Sun'' opens on Friday 15th March at 6 pm and runs until 5th April at Gallery 59 next to Prestige Framing, 59 Ninth Ave., in Tauranga.

Art lover Janice Giles needs to be mentioned for helping put this exhibition together - well done Janice.

Everyone is welcome. Bring a friend and meet the artist in person.

For more exhibition details go to the Gallery 59 website http://www.gallery59.co.nz/

See more of Kristian's work at http://www.kristianlomath.co.nz

by Pete Morris (March, 2013).

Pete Morris is an occasional painter an