ROB HOWE | YOU’VE GOT TO HAVE A FLOWER ON YOUR MIND
13 - 28 OCTOBER 2023
Rob Howe paints pictures of intimacy: light filled celebrations of his life and environment. Pictures of his house, his family and friends and his beloved North Illawarra escarpment hugged suburb. They are seemingly simple, uncomplicated little celebrations, but they are anything but naïve. He brings a knowing awareness about painting in all its complexity and variety and a distinct poetic temperament to his practice. Under his hand the world is close, light filled and unfussed, it sings of love and light. I first bonded with Rob over painting, and our shared love of the American painter and critic Fairfield Porter.
Not just his painting, which like Rob’s draws on his family and home setting, but also his informed criticism on painters of all persuasions, and his deep connection to the poets and painters of mid 20th Century New York.
Herbie, 2023, 63 x 83 cm, Oil on board, framed. AUD $4,500
Flower On Your Mind, 2023, 32 x 42.5 cm, Oil on board, framed. AUD $2,100
Porter stood by and for his representational approach to painting in the face of the waves of movements that swept through New York in the 40s 50s and 60s; Abstract Expressionism, Pop, Minimalism and photo realism but he wrote on elements of all those areas with sensitivity and depth. There are obvious painterly traits Howe shares with Porter but I think the strongest is that their approach to painting is unfettered by any ideological opposition to prevailing trends. They are not interested in the heroics of painting, the bold shouting of identity to define subject or the barren areas of academic conceptualism but neither do they wear the representational emblazoned T shirt as a battle cry. They just get on with the painting they love doing, unfettered by grand notions of art or status.
Paint can do a myriad of different things under the willful hand of experienced practitioners and even within the confines of representation there are as many variations as there are painters. Howe’s particular approach to representation abstains from laboring the picture into verisimilitude, instead his focus is on light; the dappled light on leaves and verandahs, the shadows that define not just the particulars of a face but somehow the physiognomy of the sitter.
Kiwifruit Chair, 2023, 46.5 x 36.5 cm, Oil on board, framed. SOLD
The Reading Chair, 2023, 32 x 42 cm, Oil on board, framed. AUD $2,100
The movie Paterson is a shared favorite between us: a paean by director Jim Jarmusch to the American poet William Carlos Williams, whose life was spent as an Avant Garde poet and local GP in the New Jersey town of Paterson. In the film, the bus driver poet played by Adam Driver, sings the town of Paterson into existence with his writing, not unlike the good doctor/poet who’s magnus opus is even titled Paterson. The email Howe sent to me with images of the pictures that are in this show, included a poem by WCW called Young Syacamore, a delicate rendering of the tree that I imagine was in front of him as he sat near the falls in the town, taking time out from his busy professional life.
With the division, uncertainty and turmoil facing us all at the present time, I am often asking myself how painting can in any way affect change, make any sort of difference in the real world but somehow when I look at Robert Howe’s pictures all that stuff falls away. Small acts of sensitivity flying a flag for innocence and beauty; thanks Rob!
Miner’s Cottage, 2023, 56 x 74 cm, Oil on board, framed. AUD $3,950
Clarice With Garden And Escarpment, 2023, 28.5 x 37 cm, Oil on board, framed.
AUD $1,900
(Christian Reformed) Church, 2023, 32.5 x 25 cm, Oil on board, framed.
AUD $1,800
