Ian alters bush style
By Ian Hocking

The Advertiser, 4th April 1979

Most artists early in their careers undergo changes in direction in their search for a personal mode.

Later variations in style become less frequent either because of a wish to pursue the limits of a particular mode, the commercial price or popular demand, or simply cerebral atherosclerosis reducing adaptability.

Ian Chandler's new exhibition at the Bonython Gallery heralds a dramatically different approach to his previous established hard-edged abstract style.

Chandler, who lectures at the South Australian School of Art, is an environmentalist of convection, feeling strong empathy with the Australian bush.

Vigorous

In his new paintings, all executed lat year form pastel sketches, Chandler closely explores the gum-tree through semi-abstractions, reducing its general form to a geometric simplicity and concentrating of translating its remarkable surface qualities of color and texture with vigorous slabs of color.

He somehow turns a tree-trunk into a whole area of Australian bush - only the eucalypt fragrance is missing.