CLARICE BECKETT- WHEN LESS IS A WHOLE LOT MORE

I stand next to my favourite Clarice Beckett painting – Evening, St Kilda Road. (Art Gallery of New South Wales). You can breathe Melbourne just by looking at it! '

Clarice Beckett – When less is a whole lot more! (Blog by Mike Barr)

“ If you haven’t heard of Clarice Beckett or know her story, it will just take a short while to catch up on it all, but it will likely stay with you for the rest of your life. It is all there on Google.

A painter of the tonalist persuasion of the 1920s and 30s, Clarice was largely unaccepted while she was alive. She suffered a similar complaint that the Impressionists before her endured – that her paintings looked unfinished.

Dying relatively young at 48, her works were all but forgotten. Her father burnt the stuff he thought was not worthy and her sister stored over 2000 paintings in an open shed. These works were discovered in 1970 and less then 400 could be salvaged, but it sparked interest in this enigmatic artist.

Confined in her last years to looking after her parents, Beckett painted outdoors early in the morning and at the end of the day. Because of this her work often had that misty haze which is so Melbourne.

She went a step further than the impressionists through the brevity of her brush. Places and things, were simplified but still recognisable through her tonal method. This way of painting plein air was deliberate. Her still-life and portrait work show a more traditional impressionist style but she did not employ this in capturing the exactness of mood of what she saw outside.

Her economy with the brush produced a treasure for the imagination. High detail can elevate the artist in the eyes of others, but Beckett’s work beckons the imagination - the place and time is felt, not just seen.

The current exhibition of her work at the Art Gallery of South Australia is the one I will remember the most of all that I have seen. Wonderfully curated to take us from morning through to the end of the day, it leaves an impression that is not soon forgotten.

Being invited to paint at the gallery during the exhibition has been my highest honour. I first saw the work of Clarice in 2008 and featured in the same book (The Art of Being Melbourne – Maree Coote) in 2012, so I felt there was a connection.

At first, I thought it would be appropriate to paint among her works on show, but after seeing the exhibition a few weeks before, that wish evaporated. It would have been an intrusion, despite the fact that insurance conditions prevented it.

Her works are testament to what I firmly believe, that in painting, the power of the simple can engage the senses like nothing else can.

Happy Painting! “