Black Diamond District: Artist Statement
John Bokor’s exhibition entitled “Black Diamond District” is the first body of landscape painting that he has produced since moving from Sydney to Bulli, on the South Coast.
The paintings are of the artist’s neighbourhood portraying the natural and man-made beauty of his local environment. The paintings are efficient, painterly translations of the light and atmosphere of an Australian coastal town. The sea haze of summer, the lush green of the Illawarra escarpment and a languid nostalgia infiltrate these works.
Bokor’s Paintings are all oil on board and the paint is applied in both thin transparent layers and fat painterly brushstrokes with dry and fluid paint used in equal measure. The influence of Cezanne, Matisse and Bonnard are evident as well as the Australian painters Streeton, Beckett and Nolan.
