Artist Profile

J.S. Parker

Born in Auckland in 1944, Parker moved with his family to Dunedin to spend his mid-childhood years, before studying at the Canterbury University School of Fine Arts in 1963.  There he was taught by the charismatic Rudolf Gopas, whose passionate dedication to painting was greatly inspirational for Parker.  Contemporary students at the Fine Arts School included Dick Frizzell, Barry Cleavin, Tom Kriesler and Philip Trusttum, and it was both the vision and the scale of Trusttum’s work that made a strong impression on Parker.  Other influences include Woollaston and McCahon, Pollock and Rothko, Monet, Van Gogh and of course Mondrian.

After graduating with honours in painting in 1967, Parker initially taught in high schools on the West Coast and in Blenheim.  In 1975 he was awarded a Frances Hodgkins Fellowship and so returned to Dunedin to the University of Otago.  The influence of Colin McCahon, and in particular the way McCahon was able to  imbue the landscape with spirituality, is evident in Parker’s oil works of the 1970’s and early 80’s, such as those in the Govett-Brewster’s “Stations of the Cross” exhibition in 1987.

In the mid 1980’s, in order to break through an artistic impasse, Parker began to explore the possibilities of new medium.  He painted large gouache works on paper, then experimented with washing off layers of pigment to allow the underpainting to show through.  He utilized oil pastels in an impressionistic manner, like that of an observer, freeing himself to examine the colour and technical aspects in his work.  It is from a combination of these innovations that the ‘Plain Song’ paintings, for which Parker is now so well known, began to be created.

The title ‘Plain Song’ has several meanings: it refers both to the medieval Gregorian chant (music being a constant source of inspiration for Parker), and also to the structure of the Plains of Canterbury and Marlborough.  It is further an allusion to the cubist preoccupation with 2-dimensional planes and conveys the concept of simplicity, minimalism and absence of any decorative or busy elements.  Parker uses the 2-dimensionality of the planes and the corresponding sense of freedom to put a sense of ‘space’ into the painting.

He regards his paintings rather like relief sculptures, where he literally ‘sculpts’ paint onto the surface with a palette knife (or even a builder’s trowel) to manipulate and emphasise the tonal and colour values and to ‘find poetry in the surfaces’.  For Parker, it is the sense of light in the artwork, like a kind of inner radiance, which allows the viewer to relate to the spirit of a painting.  He has always had a spiritual basis to his work and feels this may be one explanation for the recent, strong resurgence of interest in his paintings.

In the Queens Birthday Honours in 2002 John Parker was awarded an ONZM for his services to painting.