THE SUBTLE PLACES

A series of paintings inspired by the ambiguity of land & sky, evoking tranquil and contemplative moments through gestural brushwork, soft tones and hues, blurred layers and introspect mark making.

In Stillness and Flow | mixed media on cradled birch panel | 40.5×40.5cm

The Ache of Wildness | mixed media on birch panel | 30.5×30.5cm

Forgotten Stillness | mixed media on birch panel | 30.5×30.5cm

Some Confluence This Morning | mixed media on cradled birch panel | 40.5×40.5cm

Catching Light | mixed media on cradled birch panel | 30x30cm

” working with soft pastels on wood, dragging its dust, blending its pigment with translucent glazes, the process of building layers of paint over time, eroding and repainting, almost echoes the way the landscape is made. I never attempt to paint any specific place. Instead I prefer to be somewhere between the representational and expressive, to convey the idea of a landscape that is still happening. If you were able to look to the left, right, up or down: an interconnected composition.“

MOMENTS CONTAINED

Echoing how the landscape was observed: eyes moving from sky to land, land to water, a change of light and a gust of wind: a landscape still happening.

“An horizon always contains a trait… Indications of shorelines, estuaries, marshes are evident. Always referencing something tangible, be it the observed or the recollected, just leaving behind the elemental colours through a tactile surface”

“These observations were spontaneous, immediate, the process had an aspect of incompleteness, almost as if unfinished. Blurred views, with soft focus as if capturing the uncertainty of time, place and weather. Bare and linear sharpened views, open grounds; the palette varied but applied lightly, with abrupt hatching brushstrokes, rhythmic lines, sharp linear sgrafitto. An attempt to build layers of paint, adding and subtracting, eroding and repainting.“