Artist statement

The focal point for my current collection of work is largely based upon fractures within any given landscape. In particular, I have characterized natural fractures such as the cracks often found within banks of sediment and contrasted this with attention to manmade fractures through the consequential social, economic and environmental effects of wind turbines. This dichotomy of analysis provides my work with an all-encompassing plethora of perspectives, which can only enhance my overall artistic output.

The process of my work begins with photographing the chosen area, as well as making pencil sketches, ink and watercolor images. This process organizes my thoughts and aids clarity, allowing me to enhance my eventual deliverance of my piece, through better translation of my initial idea. However, ultimately I believe that memory is the quintessential aspect that influences colour and texture and therefore to avoid a splintered envisagement of my initial mental caption, I attempt to remain amongst

the landscape as much as possible.

Further to the landscape, which initially sparks my imagination, fellow artists also heavily influence my work: David Hockney; J.M.W Turner; Ian Mckeever and especially Michael Andrews.

My passion for Andrews’ ‘Thames Painting’ culminated in my eventual work and was a lasting inspiration for my collection of semi-abstract fracture paintings.

My subject has gradually and incrementally increased in its proximate connection with the surface of the painting. I personally felt that the work based on natural fractures in the landscape called for a surface that was somewhat sensitive to the areas in which I was immersed. Therefore, most of this work was created with the canvas placed horizontally on the floor, in order to prevent the thin paint from running unnaturally true to the surroundings I was trying to interpret. Additionally, as part of my work, the use of turpentine proved unpredictable, as there was no exact methodology for the evaporation process, leaving the overall clarity and strength of pigment remaining erratic. However, I do not believe this detracted from my work and ultimately I would argue that it is important to remain natural and individualistic with your work and hence combining intentional strokes with inadvertent, fortuitous elements can only improve the overall outlook of any piece. This dichotomy between delicacy and statement is something I have considered greatly before, after and during my work.

On one final conclusive note, these most recent pieces have demonstrated a fleeting, transcendence to my usual style and genre towards the realm of abstract. I feel that it is important for an artist to challenge his boundaries of comfort occasionally to avoid the temptation of conformity.

Presentation Statement

Upon analysis of my recent collection, it could be inferred that initially my paintings started as physical landscapes in which the ‘mark making’ was very limited and the images appeared crass. However, following on from this, I soon realised that there was more to the landscape, such as atmosphere and contrasting surfaces and thus hitherto I attempted to integrate these ideas more proficiently amongst my work. Moreover, it could be attested that the scale of my work increased as my work progressed, yet I felt comfortable with this and ultimately I think it enhanced and dramatically enriched the overall presentation and deliverance of my pieces.

The theme of the body of my work is fractures in landscape, with particular reference to manmade and natural factors originating in the Cornwall region. In order to maintain a degree of cultural legitimacy, I felt it most appropriate to maintain the in-keeping textual element of exhibiting my pieces in the Cornwall area, therefore making my pieces more directly accessible and comparable to the area they transcended from. My first exhibition, at Crow’s Nest, is a perfect opportunity to contextualize my work with the

exhibition space. If I may speak plainly, the exhibition took place in the middle of nowhere and therefore it was difficult to obtain a responsive and enthusiastic audience.

Introducing Wind Turbines

I briefly touched upon wind powered vertical

structures in my foundation year. They applied to my theory of the landscape being mostly horizontal and the man made structures that appear within it are vertical and the two axis create a juxsta position both conceptually and mathematically. Now I am looking at wind turbines because of the social aspect they offer; as well as the contemporary values they bring to the landscape.

There has been recent controversy in my local area in Cornwall because there have been plans put forward to build lots more wind turbines, in areas where houses are many. The two sides of the argument are: Something needs to be done to reduce the rate we a consuming non renewable fossil fuels, an alternative way of gathering and storing energy needs to happen. The other side of the argument is, the landscape must be kept as beautiful and picturesque as possible. The way I see it is if the turbines don’t get build then the energy that we will be forced to use might effect the landscape in a much more crude way and will be worse in the long run.

Change in landscape perspective

“Linear perspective is primarily dependent upon straight lines-parallels, verticals and horizontals- and is an excellent device for depicting architecture and manmade environments because man so loves the straight and parallel line. Atmospheric perspective, in contrast, is more useful in landscape and those situations where there are no straight or parallel lines.” [1]

The book that I have taken this out of was written twenty-two years ago and not by it’s own fault, I believe this statement to be out of date. Of course even ten years ago atmospheric perspective would have been the only way to accurately display the landscape. However, now there are so many parallels, horizontals and verticals, in the landscape: I am specifically talking about wind turbines. There are areas in the landscape where Dunning’s idea about only atmospheric perspective applying to the landscape would still be true. But there are also some areas forming in the landscape where atmospheric perspective could be ignored and replaces with the renaissance concept of linear perspective.