Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954), Thursday 20 March 1952, page 7


Drawings By\

Jean Bellette

One always awaits with pleasure an exhibition .of work by Miss Jean BelIctte. She is one of the. few Australian artists here who

combines a firm technique

with a sensitive and rich emotion.

In some of the lighter land-scapes in this exhibition, Miss Bellctte seems to have been trying to solve some of the particular difficulties of paint-ing Australian landscapes.

The clear, strong light tends to flatten the form and bleach the colour; a problem that doesn't lend itself to the dramatic tensions and dark moods that are characteristic of her work. It requires a colder and more dispassion-ate approach.

But when she finds land-scapes to her taste, such as the rugged hills and beetling clouds in No. 8, the earth de-caying with erosion in No. 19, or the prickly desolation of "Rough Country," No. 14, she handles them with great skill and effectiveness.

Her figure drawings arc de-cisively drawn and firmly modelled. The girls have a pensive dignity as though they arc pondering the burdens and joylcssncss of a future to be spent as caryatids.

The still lives and the inter-ior are admirable exercises in formal organisation, the col-ours being sombre yet rich.

The exhibition opened at the Macquarie Galleries at noon yesterday.-G.G.