"To the cognoscenti this man is well known. Superb painting and handling underlie his ambition to create highly articulate colour works.

 Parry's personal reference is the sea and light, and while this progression is towards a more abstract aesthetic, his primary objective remains to depict a sensory experience of nature. 
They are pared to essential shapes of reference, poised, balanced with kinetic force as each colour placement is held, without sentimentality, arriving at monumental quiet strength and unexpected sensuality."

Trudi Young, Director, Colville Gallery 

 

"There are few painters that use colour as creatively as Parry. It glows. It's the outcome of countless glazes and scumbles prefaced by a profound knowledge of old master methods. Then there is the blurring of his edges, the sfumato effect originally invented by Leonardo da Vinci to suggest a vague sense of movement. Parry puts this to great use in an almost seamless marriage of complementary forms and colours...the longer you look at these works the more profound and beautiful they become..."

Jeff Makin, Critical Moments

 

"Ian Parry’s meditative depictions of Tasmanian seascapes glow with a serene intensity. Parry relocated from Melbourne, where he occupied a well-respected position in the art scene, to coastal Tasmania, furthering his lifelong commitment to capturing the boundlessness of the ocean. A commitment proclaimed by the strength of the recent paintings by this enigmatic senior artist.

 

"Parry’s subject remains the sea and the horizon. Often this is married with the simplified forms of natural and man-made objects, such as hulls of abandoned ships, lone trees and other detritus of the coast. Parry’s work hums with the vibration that colour can create when used to its best effect. Each colour harmonises to give the work a rich presence, one that is achieved slowly through many glazes and creative scumbles of paint.

 

Parry has exhibited widely in Tasmania, Melbourne and regional Victoria. His works are represented in major public and private collections in Australia and overseas, including the Australian National Gallery, Canberra."

Marguerite Brown, independent arts writer and curator