PROVENANCE
Private Collection, Wairarapa

Philip Clairmont was one of a small group of neo- expressionists working in New Zealand in the 1970s. Although his paintings channeled the mood and certain techniques of 20th century European expressionism, they belong to a different time and geography - that is, post-modern New Zealand. He was a free-thinking non-conformist, and this work is a classic example of how Clairmont, as an artist defies categorisation. Within a single painted room, there is a universe of depth, light and darkness.

The work's most enchanting quality is its luminosity. Clairmont valued the gesturality of painting, giving an incredible force of energy to his work. We see it in swathes of colour and light. There is religious imagery, too, but the work's spirituality should not be reduced to the simplicity of a Pentecostal flame metaphor, nor to the suggestion of a crucifix in the outline of the window pane.

At the heart of This Is the Candle to Light Your Way Home, visual truth triumphs.

Despite the brightness of colour which emanates from the painting, there is an undeniable sense of mystery. The brilliant yellow is almost unsettling, even blinding.

The candle seems to hover suggestively, floating in the forefront of the picture plane. This is intensified by the inscribed message of departure and destination: Candle to light your way home. One thinks immediately of a still-life painting in which the candle represents the flickering passing of life; the calling home to our mortal end. It is the product of built-up layers, a dark foundation that has been built upon to question and distort, to present reality and stretch it out to new depths and proportions.

I knew I wanted to be a painter or a bullfighter and nothing else - Philip Clairmont