I finished and framed the painting Fenn earlier this week… it will be exhibited in the HWAT showcase exhibition for the duration of April 2010…
[Edgescape: fenn, mixed media on canvas, 90cm x 90xm, 2008-2010]
I added a few more glazes over the lower section of the canvas to get a more of a dappled, yellowy-green, and the top section is a purplish-reddish dark brown.. I got a bit obssessed with the degree of merging – which explains edgescapes as the series title for these large works…
Fenn as a title (archaic spelling), I hope is quite self-explanatory, alluding to a marshy, often flooded landscape – which, prior to the 17th century when much of the low-lying land was irrigated for agriculture, is what parts of the East Anglian landscape would have been like. This painting (fenn) is more of a sensory response than a depiction; partly landscape in an implied horizon line, but also a surface magnified… I can’t do these large paintings quickly (I started this one in September 2008, about two weeks before it was needed for an exhibition) – it seems vital for them to mature over time…
Note to self: the poet John Clare lived in (or perhaps just wandered through) the deepest part of the fens… a landscape that stirs up the metaphysical mind…
For a morning respite from all things art, I pottered about in the garden and soon spied this little fellow, a blackbird in the willow tree… a composition most pleasingly serendipitous in its contrast of colours (echoing fenn) – and the wriggling worm in the blackbird’s beak is further echoed in the curls of the willow branch… he was waiting to make a safe return to the nest…
The male blackbird was taking it in turns with his female mate to gather worms for their hungry offspring. They had decided to make their nest in a large, tangled pile of recently pruned clematis and so I was unable to get on with clearing the area – so I temporarily sectioned it off with some chicken wire fencing…
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I also spent a lovely afternoon out at the coast with an artist friend – both of us are avid beachcombers and find lots of creative inspiration there. I found all of these purple-hued pebbles, which I placed on an algae-covered piece of wood to photograph my hoard, which glowed more pink in the late afternoon sun…
I also liked the contrasting textures in this dense, spikey thicket of red-brown bushes with the soft beige grasses – serving a purpose in reducing the impact of wind erosion on this exposed part of the coast…
and these trees, in a nearby wood, looked almost petrifed…
I feel quite lucky to be less than thirty minutes from this stretch of the coast…
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