NUMINOUS LANDSCAPE

A look around the studio

21st July 2024

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Greetings,

Welcome to the first video taking you into the studio. It might not be particularly revolutionary, but new to me, and once I get the hang of this hopefully it will offer a different way of sensing the work through the flat surface of a screen.

I sometimes struggle to tell if the colours are accurate or not. Seeing any replication of a painting is for me like many describe hearing one's own voice; unfamiliar, bearing resemblance, but surely not accurate. The surprise of something intimately known suddenly becoming alien. Perhaps in some way that is always what it's like for each of us who encounters a creative work, and is not the creator. No two people truly experience the same thing. When trying to photograph a piece I wonder about what is the true image, so dependent is it on the light of the environment. And now I make some paintings which incorporate pearlescent tones and other textures, which by design are there to shift the viewers perception as it is encountered from differing angles. These are even more challenging to convey with any accuracy in a single still image. Perhaps the 'original' can only truly exist in the place that it was made.

Over the coming weeks I will be adding a short video for each piece in the website shop. Please let me know if you would be interested in seeing a video of any particular work, and I will prioritise it.

The music playing is by Richard Skelton, An Ash-Tree Which The Ignorant Call Holy. I can't imagine that I have made a single image over the past ten years that has not at some point been imbued with the music of Skelton as a catalyst in its creation.

A few pictures that caught my eye at the Tate Britain recently.

Above: Samuel Palmer. One of his Shoreham (Kent) inspired images. I find that the small scale of this work adds to the sense of peering into a world within a world. I have only seen two other paintings by him in the flesh, and am very keen to see more. I recall my own pilgrimages to Shoreham, and each time I do see one his pictures it pulls me right back into the magical vision of the place that he so eloquently articulates.

Below: The brilliantly titled 'The Doubt, Can These Dry Bones Live?' by Henry Alexander.

Below: The unstoppable resurgence of British esotericist Ithell Colquhoun continues apace. Tate recently announced that their exhibition programme for 2025 will feature a Colquhoun show at St.Ives.

Above: Rachel Jones, 'lick your teeth, they so clutch' 2021. This intensely vibrant recent work was created using oil stick.

Below: A striking contrast on the opposite wall, a large scale photography by Wolfgang Tillmans.

And finally....this painting of London Bridge under construction, which the astute observer will note depicts some sneaky quaffing.

Thank you for reading. See you next time.