Besides viewing the works at an exhibition of Bjorn Dolva paintings, another source of delight is looking at the people looking at the pictures.  There's a smile of recognition here and a wide-eyed wonderment there, that tells you a particular exhibit has reached beyond the adult facade to awaken the child within.  Dolva's unique imagery and excellent technique cuts directly to that time of innocence, acceptance of differences and amazement at the world around us as seen from the perspective that distorts towering edifices and annotates moving bodies.

Dolva's world is full of real people, cellulite and all.  Every image, whether it depicts shopping in Perth's London Court or hanging out around Sydney's Opera House, is filled with people of every size, shape and colour.  You're bound to see someone you know in at least one of them.  Crowded and complex as these images may be there is a measured movement and a cohesive sense of space due to the excellent use of light.  Dolva gives us a precise sense of time and place then freezes the action for a nanosecond allowing our minds to bring us to, then take us beyond the activity.  We make perfect sense out of his illogical imagery.

In On the Sea Shore there is a brief moment when we really can walk on water while in other beach scenes we welcome sea monsters that are far from monstrous and accept mermaids that dance in the air.  Fantasy?  Yes, but the precise wrinkle in a T shirt here, the correct foreshortening of a limb there, and the willingness of viewers to suspend disbelief everywhere, makes it all so very real.

There is a hint of the Rococo in some works and a touch of the Surreal in most.  Amid the rich colour and subjects of people enjoying themselves, there is a symbolic use of light and a decided sense of someone watching.  Disembodied eyes peer from unusual places, faces appear in clouds, a dark top hatted figure walks through many pictures and the occasional skull smiles out from lush foliage or a monastery window.  Yet there is no sense of guilt or paranoia, instead the images grow out of a happy soul, one that recognizes that our morality accompanies us in the carefree lives we choose to lead.  I do appreciate Beside the Pool where the Rococo elements are most obvious.  We may replace Watteau's 18th century Island of Cythera with a modern water park but the illusion of earthly paradise is the same.

There are a few pseudo sophisticated souls who see only the cartoon-like drawing on the surface of Dolva's paintings and dismiss the work as childish.  But they are blind to the underlying truth in each image thereby missing the point of it all.  Being childish is a far cry from being child-like; the former is self-absorbed and irresponsible while the latter is open-minded and trusting.  Dolva's child-like images allow us to commute easily between the experiences of the everyday and the realms of the imagination and the child within says thank you.