MARTIN McKENZIE: LA MER DU SUD
Welcome back to The Sutton Gallery, which this month returns with its first exhibition of the year – and what a wonderful show it is.
Martyn McKenzie was first mentioned in my review of the gallery’s Winter Show in December, and this exhibition was already being mooted back then.
McKenzie graduated from Edinburgh College of Art in 2012 and was recently shortlisted as a finalist for the Sunday Times Watercolour Competition 2015 at the Mall Galleries in London.
This exhibition draws from his experiences living in Nice, France, over the winter of 2014/15. There McKenzie produced a collection of 72 watercolours that record the shifting states of the sea and sky.
Painted en plein air from the same location on the Promenade des Anglais, each study is annotated with the date, time of production, and point of degrees facing, offering an analytical observation and study of the seascape.
It’s fascinating to see McKenzie’s process. You see first his small but detailed watercolours in the South Series, (South West Day Page), watercolour on paper, each study 2.4 x 5cm.
From there we progress to smaller oil-on-panel studies, which are about the size of a phone. McKenzie chose this size because that’s how most people capture the same view which he would paint day in, day out. The next progression is the oil paintings, of which there are 12 – six day works and six nights – which were painted especially for this exhibition.
I love the perfect straight line on the horizon in ‘Afternoon (141° Southeast)’. The beautiful sumptuous blues create a peaceful and tranquil scene. A couple of degrees along and later in the day is ‘Dusk (138° Southeast)’. McKenzie really has an exceptional ability to create the perfect scene, and I particularly liked this piece for its lighter colour palette.
In Study for ‘Twilight (203° Southwest)’, the blues blend into each other and the horizon is almost unrecognisable.
There’s not a lot of ‘action’ in these works, but when there is it becomes all the more obvious. See Study for ‘Night (167° South)’ for the crashing waves; Study for ‘Night (170° Southeast)’ for the starlit sky; Study for ‘Night (203° Southwest)’ for the plane taking off in the middle distance.
Study for ‘Afternoon (203° Southwest)’ is my favourite piece. It also comes as a larger oil painting, but it’s this smaller version that I prefer. For me it is perfection.
You can’t help but get the feeling that the artist enjoyed his time in Nice. It turned into a prolific creative period, which has led to an awards nomination and a tremendous debut solo exhibition. Being in a beautiful location obviously helps, but you need talent to re-create it and Martyn McKenzie has just that.
Go and see this exhibition to relax, enjoy sensational views, and witness some wonderful art.—Rhys Fullerton
Martyn McKenzie: La Mer du Sud continues until 28 May 2015 at The Sutton Gallery (18a Dundas Street). Admission free.