Mark Dober, Artist Exhibition and Presentation

I recently attended an exhibition and artist presentation at the Bundoora Homestead Art Centre. Called ‘Presence’, the exhibition showcased artist Mark Dober’s recent works on the landscape. The landscape paintings were of around Melbourne and regional Victoria that were within a short drive of Melbourne itself. The exhibition space is a large room with a half wall panel at the entrance.
As soon as you walk into the space you get the hint of the artist’s influence. The bold colours and strong brushstrokes and the style of painting are like post-impressionist artist Van Gogh. In the artist presentation, Mark Dober said his influences were the Impressionist styles of Monet and Van Gogh and the more recent well known artist David Hockney; who was a painter before he involved himself in photography, now has returned to painting landscapes. The colour palettes, which the viewer can see from his paintings, are yellow, oranges and greens. In his presentation, Dober said that his palette is chromatic using a mixture of primary and secondary colours not earthly colours. However, some of his paintings do use some darker earthly colours, such as browns and blues. His mediums are oil paintings on canvas, for example ‘Agapanthus’ 2012, and water colours and gouache on paper, such as his ‘Trentham Falls’ 2012.
Dober described his passion for ‘plein air’ painting as his influence from the Impressionists, especially Monet. He said that when he is out in the field painting he gets quite involved by constantly looking at the landscape whilst painting. Working on location is more dynamic and spontaneous. This reminded me of the ‘Get Drunk’ excerpt presented by Natascha Stellmach. The excerpt said that “one should always be drunk” but in term of having a deep involvement with something or activity. I guess Mark Dober gets drunk with his ‘plein air’ painting as he said it expresses his joy of painting. He also said he prefers to paint on location than take a photo and paint in the studio, as he likes painting in real time. For instance, as the light changes in nature and is more dynamic. He said that working from photos is not the same as working on location as you are dealing with a static image and a single time frame. Painting on location he said, that the process is more “organic” and “not at all formulaic”.
I guess this falls under what Allan Kaprow describes about ‘Art art’, where he said, art is taken seriously. Where art uses certain sacred settings and formats handed down by tradition. This could be Mark Dober’s style of painting on location, just like the Impressionists, such as Monet, did. Also just like the Impressionists, he uses a minimal colour palette. However, the only difference is that Dober said he doesn’t use an easel; rather he places the canvas on the ground. Kaprow said that there is a historical trend of modern art heading towards a “specialism” or “purity” and that any “admixtures” are viewed as contaminants. This could be seen in the style of work that Dober engages in. That is, the return to ‘plein air’ painting and using a limited colour palette.
The artist’s works in this exhibition were mostly landscapes painted on location. When the viewer looks at the paintings whey see a snapshot of the landscape. Like what John Berger said that when “we ‘see’ a landscape, we situate ourselves in it”. It is as if the viewer is on location looking at what the artist sees. Dober uses various brush strokes in his paintings just like the Impressionists did. This was to bring contrast to the painting and to reflect different aspects of nature.
Finally, on the whole, it was a rather interesting exhibition. One could easily see the influences of the Impressionists, especially Van Gogh on Dober. As the artist said that they style reflects his current work and his ‘presence’ within the landscape. The picture presented is titled “Under an Ancient Gum, Gellibrand Park 4” 2013.
References:
– Berger, J (et al) (1972) “Ways of Seeing” extract, Penguin, London.
– Dober, M (2013) Artist presentation, unpublished paper, 11 May 2013. Bundoora Homestead Art Centre.
– Kaprow, A (2003) “Essays on the Blurring of Art and Life”. University of California Press, Berkeley.