Major Talent Established

Of the three painters showing at Elva Bett's, Robert McLeod is the most mature. I have written elsewhere of McLeod's exuberant colour and paint handling, and of his stylistic affinities with the Scotsman Alan Davey and the sixties school of British painters. McLeod is also a Scotsman, and has been criticised for failing to come to terms with his new environment. Ignoring this criticism, and well aware of the stultifying effect 'the New Zealand thing' has had on many painters and of its modishness, Robert McLeod has continued to throw brilliant colour on his canvases with gay abandon. Up until now that is.

The very large work hung here. The Long Way Home', represents a real breakthrough for McLeod and should silence his critics. Gone are the selfconsciously childlike Alan Davey devices and the joyous colours. Instead the colours are muted landscape tones, ochre, grey and green, almost from Woolaston's palette. The composition is tight and altogether successful, no mean achievement in a work on this scale and the paint-handling is fluent.

Till now Robert McLeod has been a painter to watch. 'The Long Way Home' is his first recognisable New Zealand statement and firmly establishes him as a major talent in the local context.