-
Plainsong: Composition with Cross
Oil on paper
1200 x 790 mm
Signed & dated 1998
Framed -
Plainsong: Duality – For the Blue Air
Oil on canvas
800 x 1200 mm
Signed & dated 2010 -
Plainsong: Duality – Blue/Ochre
Oil on canvas
800 x 1200 mm
Signed & dated 2010 -
Plainsong: Duality – Green/Orange
Oil on canvas
800 x 1200 mm
Signed & dated 2010 -
Plainsong: Duality – For Autumn
Oil on canvas
800 x 1200 mm
Signed & dated 2010 -
Plain Song: Sinall Study – Blue & Marigold
Oil on canvas
505 x 410 mm
2016
Framed -
Study for Conditions of Evening
Oil on canvas
500 x 400 mm
2009
Framed -
Plainsong: Two Part Harmony – Blue
Oil on canvas
1220 x 1520 mm
Signed & dated 2007 -
Plain Song: Small Study for Two Blues
Oil on canvas
455 x 355 mm
2016
Framed -
Plain Song: Small Study – Blue & Brown
Oil on canvas
455 x 355 mm
2016
Framed -
Plainsong: Sunlit
Oil on canvas
1220 x 1015 mm
Signed
2017 -
Plain Song: The Light Plain – Towards Evening
Oil on canvas
1220 x 1520 mm
Signed & dated 2015 lower right -
Plain Song: The Light Plain – Towards Evening
Oil on canvas
1220 x 1520 mm
Signed & dated 2015 lower right -
Plainsong: Two Part Harmony – Blue and Crimson
Oil on canvas
1215 x 1525 mm
Signed & dated ’08 -
Plain Song: The Light Plain – Around Dusk
Oil on canvas
1220 x 1520 mm
Signed & dated 2015 lower right

Highly regarded by collectors nationally and internationally, JS Parker is best known for his large impasto paintings within a grid format, full of texture, rhythm and balance within his imposed framework, exploring juxtapositions of colour. He worked in thick layers of paint applied with a palette knife, sweeps of paint which he would pare back to reveal hints of what lies beneath.
JS (John) Parker studied at Ilam School of Fine Arts, Christchurch and graduated with Honours in Painting in 1967. Highly regarded by collectors, nationally and internationally, Parker is best known for his large impasto paintings within a grid format. His works are full of texture, rhythm, and balance within his imposed framework. Parker worked in thick layers of paint applied with a palette knife – sweeps of paint, which he pared back to reveal hints of what lies beneath.
For Parker, it is the sense of an inner radiance in his paintings which allows the viewer to relate to the “spirit” of the painting. Parker had always been drawn to emotive rather than hard-edged art and believed in eliminating in painting any obstacles to the spirit: “If your painting’s going to have a language, it’s got to be felt. It’s a physical thing.”
Parker painted full-time since he was awarded the Frances Hodgkins Fellowship in 1975. In 2002, Parker was awarded the ONZM in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List in recognition of his services to painting over the previous four decades. He lived and worked in Marlborough until his death in August 2017.
SOLO EXHIBITIONS AT ARTIS
2016 – The Light Plain, ARTIS Gallery, Auckland
2014 – Recent Paintings – with Roy Good, ARTIS Gallery, Auckland
2013 – Abstract Reunion – with Roy Good, ARTIS Gallery, Auckland
2017 – JS Parker Poems 1963 – 2017, Millennium Public Art Gallery
2009 – JS Parker: Plain Song, Dr Damian Skinner, Millennium Public Art Gallery
ACADEMIC HISTORY
1967 – Ilam School of Fine Arts, Christchurch
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2016 – The Light Plain, ARTIS Gallery, Auckland
2014 – Recent Paintings – with Roy Good, ARTIS Gallery, Auckland
2013 – Abstract Reunion – with Roy Good, ARTIS Gallery, Auckland
AWARDS
2014 – Marlborough Living Cultural Treasure
2002 – Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit
1975 – Frances Hodgkin’s Fellow
COLLECTIONS
Marlborough’s Millennium Art Gallery
Auckland Art Gallery
Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetu
Dunedin Public Art Gallery
University of Victoria, Wellington
University of Otago’s Hocken Collections – Uare Taoka o Hakena.