Watercolours are one of the most popular forms of visual art, they are easily accessible to view and attempt.  Most people know someone who dabbles, or has dabbled, in this artfrom at some time or other.  As a result, the watercolourist is often maligned by the art 'establishment' as perhaps not being elitist or worth enough.  The perfect example of this being the Prince of Wales.  These factors make any review of a watercolour exhibition a special case.

Because of the popularity of the medium and competition involved, a good watercolourist has to really stand out among the crowd.  Wright's CV shows a career spanning fifteen years painting and exhibiting, mainly at country shows where competition in the medium would be at its most intense.  She can cut the mustard.

The pictures she has chosen to display here are perfect for the market they are aimed at.  Scenes of Perth involve the salubrious suburbs of Peppermint Grove, Cottesloe and Nedlands.  Then there are those of Bunker Bay and Dunsborough and the favourite retreat of the 'rich and glamorous' in WA, Broome.  There landscapes of Wanneroo and Quinns Rock are strangely absent.

Watercolour should be a study of light and in some pictures this has been accomplished perfectly.  In Paperbarks on Inlet the intense light of southern WA is excellent, almost blinding the viewer with its intensity. If the viewer were at the scene and took their sunglasses off, they would have the same sensation.  Unfortunately in Mulla Mulla - Broome the hazy tropical light of the north-west has not been caught nearly as well.

It is the beach scenes where the artist truly excels.  Leighton Beach viewed from the new reef at Cottesloe is ideal in size and realism.  And she captures the arid dryness very well in her treatment of the vegetation of Rottnest in Salmon Bay.  In the Bunker Bay paintings she captures the place superbly so it becomes instantly recognizable.

The artist has used different light effects to show the range of her painting. This has worked in Misty Morning at the Vineyard but not as well in Dawn - Freshwater Bay, which included too much pink nor in Waychinicup with its strange palms near the water's edge.  However, the majority of the paintings were of a high standard.