THE SEA
Exhibition at Cadogan Contemporary, 87 Old Brompton Rd London SW7 3LD
'Mesmerising Canvases which evoke both the beauty and cruelty of the sea.'
Rachel Campbell Johnson, The Times
'Mesmerising Canvases which evoke both the beauty and cruelty of the sea.'
Rachel Campbell Johnson, The Times
The titles of these paintings come from the names given to moon ‘seas’. The lunar Maria are large, dark, basaltic plains on Earth’s Moon, formed by ancient volcanic eruptions. They were dubbed maria, Latin for "seas", by early astronomers who mistook them for actual seas.
The ambiguity of these names appealed to me, for the paintings do not represent actual seas but rather imagined universal ones. I want them to have an immersive quality and to evoke rather than describe the space. It is for the viewer to find their place within them, which could be a meditation or stimulation. The tension between the beauty and cruelty of the sea, of threat and solace was something I tried to explore in these works.
The large scale of the paintings is critical to their impact and the technique I use of layering thick impasto oil paint with palette knives is very much an organic process, allowing chance rather than description to occur. These seas come from memories and I have moved away from relying on preparatory sketches made by the coast, to simply looking and absorbing the nature of the sea in all its changing spirit. To capture the essence of my subject is what I continually seek to do in my work, in the hope they will have their own voice.
The ambiguity of these names appealed to me, for the paintings do not represent actual seas but rather imagined universal ones. I want them to have an immersive quality and to evoke rather than describe the space. It is for the viewer to find their place within them, which could be a meditation or stimulation. The tension between the beauty and cruelty of the sea, of threat and solace was something I tried to explore in these works.
The large scale of the paintings is critical to their impact and the technique I use of layering thick impasto oil paint with palette knives is very much an organic process, allowing chance rather than description to occur. These seas come from memories and I have moved away from relying on preparatory sketches made by the coast, to simply looking and absorbing the nature of the sea in all its changing spirit. To capture the essence of my subject is what I continually seek to do in my work, in the hope they will have their own voice.