Introduction to the article:

In June I saw Gretchen Albrecht’s exhibition, "Roses in the Snow", at the Sue Crockford Gallery in Auckland. There were some small works on paper, and even a teapot with two cups and saucers. But the five new paintings on canvas were what stayed in my mind afterwards. I wondered why the artist organised her swirls of paint into a roughly oval form, though she had switched from oval shaped canvases to rectangular ones. The varying amounts of bare canvas left over, especially towards the corners of the rectangle, also got me thinking about pictorial structure, and about why these works were painted on pre-stretched canvases. In short, whereas much of the writing about Gretchen’s work has focused on symbols and references, I wanted to ask her some painting questions. I also wanted to see what she thought about the possibilities for abstract painting now, as against the situation she had encountered earlier in her career. I began by asking what had motivated the return to the rectangle. To paraphrase Olivia Newton John, "let’s get technical!"

http://www.art-newzealand.com/Issue136/contents136.htm