Paintings 1970s- 1994

1993/4  Journeys    Solo Show    Hawkes Bay Exhibition Centre, Hastings

The Departure
500 x 450 mm Oil on board
Artist's collection

1993   Commission for Palmerston North College of Education celebrating Women’s Suffrage 

            

Manawatu Altarpiece 
1500 x 900 mm including predella panel,  Oil on board
Massey University collection

      

1992   Renascences     
            Solo show,  22 November – January 19 1992 Cabinet Gallery Manawatu Art Gallery, Palmerston North

Cannas transplanted  Oil on board

Private collection

Cannas in Summer,   

300 x 450 mm, Oil on board.   Private collection

The Marriage   
300 x 450 mm, Oil on board.   Private colleciton

My choice of imagery in these works refers to the growth of self-knowledge.  Motifs such as groves of trees, gardens, cloudy skies, islands and pools, suggest spiritual places.  The 'Green Man' heads are ancient Celtic symbols representing new life and fertility of ideas.  Canna lilies, an introduced species in New Zealand, symbolise my own exotic ancestry, rebirth and renewal. Their Gothic curves subvert the classical architecture I often use to frame them; architecture which suggests the visionary nature of the images and places them in a European context yet clearly located in the New Zealand landscape. My study of European Art History provided a rich source of pictorial ideas for these works.

1990       Recent Work   Solo show at Manawatu Art Gallery

Plum Tree in Spring
500 x 600 mm, Oil on gesso on board
Artist's collection

      

View of part of the exhibition

1986      Recent Work     A solo show at Brooker Gallery, Wellington.  

Children in the Garden
1200 x 900 mm,  Oil on gesso on board
Private collection

Cannas Dreaming of Next Summer
1200 x 900 mm, Oil on gesso on board
Private collection

Cannas in Summer

1200 x 900 mm, Oil on gesso on board

Exultant Dance

1200 x 900 mm, Oil on gesso on board

Private collection

High Tide at Foxton Beach

1200 x 900 mm, Oil on gesso on board

Private collection

Driven Tide; Raumati

1200 x 900 mm, Oil on gesso on board

Private collection

1986    Six Manawatu Artists   Manawatu Art Gallery

Landscape Screen  Oil on board

Raemon working on one of the screen panels, Bronya watching

1983    Recent work      A joint Show, Galerie Legard, Wellington

Afternoon Light, Kapiti Coast

1200 x 900 mm, Oil on gesso on board

Private collection

Passing Shower

1200 x 900 mm, Oil on gesso on board

Private collection

1982   Recent Paintings    Solo Show at Galerie Legard, Wellington

            

Part of the exhibition

Elements
Oil on gesso on board, Triptych, each panel 300 x 300 mm
Private collection

Hills with Rainbows
Triptych, each panel 300 x 300 mm
Private collection

Review by Elva Bett of Recent Paintings in the Dominion  4 April 1982

 Raemon Rolfe’s exhibition at Galerie Legard made me nostalgic.  If you have ever stood and marveled at a Rubens nude in the Pinakothek in Munich or turned a corner in the Kunst Museum in Vienna and come face to face with Vermeer’s Artist in his Studio you will know what I mean when I say glazing can give you the thrill of a lifetime.

We all have forbears and in art this is particularly so.  That Raemon Rolfe’s forebears are the masters of glazing is obvious.  There is something breathtaking in the lusciousness of this medium when well done which dispenses with subject.

 Landscape forms are the primary prop which Raemon Rolfe uses for her study, molded, rounded, almost anatomical forms of hills and sky. Gorse covered and distant blue hills, sun-drenched or rainbow crowned hills.  She uses different layers of glazing to produce different effects. 

The artist states her aims as exploring various ways of applying glazes to create shimmering colours to give depth ...’

The paintings give just this quality, shimmering depth. And  the abstract quality of ‘joy and inner light’ for which she is searching, radiates from the canvases.

Evening Post Review by Sue Thomas

  If it means traveling a little out of your way to see Raemon Rolfe’s paintings at Galerie Legard in Kelburn, do it anyway – you won’t be disappointed.

Her paintings of hills are breathtaking.  They are ‘glazed’ layer upon layer of glorious transparent colour has been applied to give a enamel-like effect.  The method is painstaking but well worth the trouble, judging by these works.  Rolfe has spent ten years researching the technique after the old Flemish masters and Venetian schools, and she has hit the jackpot.

Golden Coast Beach is one of the best examples of the mood and statement this technique can give.  It is a seascape, with horizon line barely discernible and an island vaguely seen in the mist of early morning light.  The hues of pink and blue are mottled, but the effect of the technique has to be seen to be believed.  The exhibition must be seen to be appreciated.

1970s  - exhibited work regularly in Manawatu and had work included in the 1971 Autumn show of the New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts, Wellington.