
[farmscape i 2010, mixed media on canvas]

[farmscape ii 2010, mixed media on canvas]

[farmscape iii 2010, mixed media on canvas]

[farmscape iv 2010, mixed media on canvas]

[farmscape v 2010, mixed media on canvas]

[farmscape vi 2010, mixed media on canvas]

[farmscape vii 2010, mixed media on canvas]
these paintings are all 60cm x 60cm, unframed…
it was time to see some of the abstract farmscape paintings in the altogether – and some words, quoted from previous entries in my online journal…
the broad idea behind the farmscape paintings? that they remodulate, within a very reductionist format, both the farmyard and the fieldscape, a mathematical sense of order with an organic surface, as a means to challenge or recontextualise ideas of a pastoral vision of the rural landscape. i actually view them as another form of blind paintings, the images that a blind person might perhaps conjure up in a touchy-feely world devoid of spatial perspective…
the farmscapes are meant to be very cool, sparse paintings, hinting at enclosure, mechanisation, rural industral landscapes, reducing the pattern and structure of agricultural land and its outbuildings to an economic geometry…[03.08.09]
another farmscape [working title].. there is no reason to hurry.. like the mould and decay they portray, it takes time.. and i am a slow painter.. [18.08.09]
the farmscapes are developing slowly, as i will wait for the cooler hues of autumn and winter to pervade my colouristic senses.. at present they look bereft of true colour – dark olive green, slate grey, ashen blue, taupe.. [25.08.09]
with a cooler palette of metallic greys, bronzes and blues… [18.02.10]
agriculture depends upon the seasons, and nature through its cyclical changes imparts its own identity on an otherwise structured landscape… [18.02.10]
there is a reference to landscape in colour and format, a modulation of stripes hint at the structures of agriculture – a farm (buildings) and its landscape (fields) distilled into one work, when viewed in both the horizontal and the vertical… [28.02.10]
the farmscapes have their obvious mechanical, minimalist geometry, but on some days I question their formality, they seem too detached from their source…. [08.02.10]
this led me to research the origin of the word farm, which as a verb has only been in use since the 19th century, the noun farm derives from the Latin firma meaning ‘fixed payment’ (from the Latin firmare) denoting a lease of land, later specific to agriculture… firmare also leads to the word firmament, a tangible expression of the skies or heavens above… [03.08.09]
the landscape of East Anglia, broadly-speaking, with its patchwork pattern of arable fields and reclaimed fenland, especially when seen from above, has all the obvious markings of a rural landscape shaped by man – a factory without a roof… [18.02.10]