David Sarich, New Zealand Artist – Painted Language

“Ikons point to something which can’t otherwise be easily articulated,” says painter, David Sarich. “They’re a way to talk about deeper concerns. Ikon painting fitted my internal language.”

Early and High Renaissance artists, particularly Giotto, Masaccio, and Michelangelo inspired Sarich, but the ideas behind icon painting have always featured in his work, along with a consistent underpinning of contemplation and transformation. Russian born American artist, Mark Rothko is a Sarich hero. “Different form, same intent,” says Sarich.

“Ikons are objects of reverence, portable churches, places to worship, to contemplate, and isn’t that what painting does? Offer the opportunity to contemplate? Painting and viewing works of art are both acts of contemplation.”

Nga Moemoea, the dreams

Themes of prophecy and portent appear throughout Sarich’s work. “In New Zealand I always thought we had our own Moses in TW Ratana, the Maori prophet. My paintings about him were a monotheistic take on the concept of souls not having to walk the indirect path. I play with images so symbol and narrative work together.”

The whole world is a symbol in Sarich’s view. “A cup is a symbol for promise, a book is a symbol for something else – it holds language, thought structure. A garden is a symbol for rest, or play. Symbols aren’t related only to certain things and therefore extra special. They are another way to access ideas, higher thought. They aren’t history; they’re now.”

Detail, in regards to Piero della Francesca

“Painting is another language; a more truthful language, but I let my quirky side out as well which expresses the ridiculous, the outrageous, the humour lurking under every leaf.  If you don’t laugh, serious endeavour doesn’t have context.”

Sarich lives in Far Northern NZ on a peninsula and listens simultaneously to east and west coasts. Despite the openness and exposure to weather to which a peninsula is subject, the elemental sound of sea is calming.

The Far North has particular resonance for his work. “It’s full of stories,” he says, “the story of Te Houtaewa; the journeying of Maori spirits along Ninety Mile Beach to Te Rerenga Wairua (Cape Reinga) and the final pohutukawa tree. Place and landscape, meaning and vision, a shadow here, or there a light on the sea.

Place these on the altar

In 2007 Sarich carved and constructed a painted seven metre public work which intensified his interest in polychrome. The Dalmatian pou (totem), Hands Across the Water, is installed outside the Whangarei City Library.

“Ancient sculptures, marble or wooden, were usually painted. In 1988 when I carved and painted Continuum, on the earth wall at the Quarry in Whangarei, I struggled with the convention of sculpture and paint. It was quite an epiphany to give myself permission to paint sculpture. Now I paint everything.”

Rukama Preko Mora – Hands Across the Water

“With the advent of the internet and access to art from around the world, today’s painters are often also sculptors and installation artists. Artistic disciplines have blended and there is more freedom. The freedom was always there but is more acceptable now. Post-modernism has deconstructed purist artistic discipline. Now we have many things going on – not just one or two strong art disciplines.

“Paint is wonderful. I still love paint. These days I use colour grounds more, and work the under-paint, the scruffy stuff that happens underneath to secure the composition, more too.”

As a youngster living on a farm in the early 60s, Sarich’s artistic endeavours were in a wilderness because he wasn’t exposed to art.

“I certainly didn’t know about NZ art, although I was interested in poetry, drawing and building things, and was greatly influenced by the nature around me. New Zealand artist, Tony Fomison, was an early influence. His painting at Yvonne Rust’s home in Parua Bay was the first real art I’d ever seen. Seeing that one work, I knew I had to paint.”

In 1985 Fomison wrote to Sarich: ‘Yvonne Rust showed me your painting, so I am writing this to do my bit towards encouraging you to hold on to your vision and to keep painting.’

Rust was an important influence and Sarich still respects her artistic approach – that one can work with anything, and anywhere. The determination and inspiration to work comes from you, and the materials can be sourced from all around you.

“Rust also taught me to dig pigment from coloured clay banks and make it into paint. Clay comes and goes in my art practice. I’ve used it as paint, and worked with painted ceramic relief.”

After the completion of the Dalmatian pou, Sarich wanted to see Tučepi where his grandfather came from. In 2009, he and his wife, printmaker, Faith McManus, travelled through Europe to look at art, starting in Tučepi, Croatia.

Ascent in hand

“The Brancacci Chapel in Florence with the frescos by Masaccio and Masolino was for me,” says Sarich, “going to the mountain. The Uffizi, Michelangelo’s work, and many other amazing artworks and buildings fed our eyes and hearts. Seeing the Ducati factory/museum (another passion as a rider and amateur restorer of Ducati motorbikes) in Bologna, and then stumbling on the Morandi Museum, free, in a place where virtually nothing else is, was wonderful.

“Traditional and contemporary art reflects and converses in Europe. Contemporary work was often juxtaposed next to an old master and that was refreshing. Art isn’t just history. It’s also current.”

The trip proved a huge inspiration, but for a long time afterwards Sarich felt he couldn’t make anything. What more was there to say? What was there left to do?

Build your House upon a Rock

“In the end you just have to wait it out, and my December 2013 show, Glimpses from a Chapel, at Bowen Galleries in Wellington came out of that wait.”

As a trained fitter and turner, Sarich is hands-on with the skills to plan and methodically work through long projects. Attention to detail and a capacity to make things fit together serve his art well. He works in a shed he describes as a Swiss army knife but would prefer a much larger space.

Since 2009 Sarich has concentrated on small works; paintings, and found objects which he paints.

“Sometimes work comes easily,” he says, “but often it’s a process. I think about it in layers. The concepts come from drawings, thumbnails, notes, random conversations, peering into the landscape, or quotes I’ve heard. Often previous work inspires new work. Sometimes, in between projects, I suddenly just have to make things. Usually when that happens I’m thinking about mundane things.

“Currently I make small works, partly because of space constraints, but also because I like intimate works. Small works create an intimacy, both for me in the making, and perhaps for the viewer in interpretation. They have their own set of considerations as well – is it convincing, does it work? They’re just as time-consuming as larger pieces.”

Several of these intimate works have recently sold to academics and to directors of public art galleries and museums for their personal collections.

‘Bird from Makarska’

He and McManus support each other’s work. Sarich says, “We have similar interests, but our aesthetic language is completely different.

“A few years ago we worked together on a print show based on the Riders of the Red Manuka film of 1926. Faith worked with the people aspect, while I worked with the locations. It inspired a suite of drypoint prints, a technique that suits my vigorous drawing style.

“I first made prints in Dunedin in the early 90s. Nick Duvall-Smith organised painters from his No.5 Gallery stable to make print portfolios. According to Faith the prints we made were rather scruffy.”

From 2005-2009 Sarich taught first year Drawing and Painting at NorthTec in Whangarei.

Occasionally he offers metal-leaf/gilding, framing, and painting workshops. In October 1995 the TV3 Sunday arts programme featured Sarich gilding.  Always an irrepressible experimenter with materials, he taught himself the craft in 1991 when he was creating ceramic icons with real gold leaf. “23ct gold leaf is like gossamer,” he says. “Breathe, and it disappears.”

As a younger artist he wanted his voice to be heard, but the urgency has gone.  “I think you just stop being impatient,” he says. “The reward of patience is patience. My down time is occupied by riding or working on one of my vintage Ducati motorcycles, and fixing the house.

“Art isn’t going to go away. There will always be work that moves us and leaves us breathless. The internet and information technology have changed life radically and that’s exciting, but being exposed to so much we need to learn discernment and get good at editing. Artists must remember the importance of drawing. When you make thumbnails, in the very act of using the instrument, pen, pencil, paint, chalk, paintbrush – you’re thinking – tricking your mind into that creative place.

“Art has always been vital for humanity because it is a part of the language that moves us closer to truth.”

‘I have only one heart’

Sarich has exhibited in solo and group shows in Japan, Australia, Wellington, Auckland, Dunedin, Christchurch, Whangarei, New Plymouth, Wanganui, and Invercargill. His works are held in many private and public collections including the Eastern Southland Gallery, Southland Museum and Art Gallery, The Hocken Collection, Wallace Trust Arts Collection, Private International Ikon Collection – London, Local Government NZ Head Office, and ANZ Bank. Public works include a sculpted pou – Whangarei Public Library forecourt (2007), Continuum, The Quarry – Whangarei, and He Tohu A Sign – NZ Police Southern Regional Headquarters, Dunedin (1994). In 1998 Sarich accepted a residency with Trust Bank Southland Art Foundation, now the William Hodges Fellowship and in 2007 he won the inaugural BDO Spicers Painting Award.

David Sarich – working on pou

David Sarich lives and works in Te Kopuru in Northern New Zealand.