Contents coming soon.
Using expressive colour rather than naturalistic colour takes a painting further towards abstraction. Those who choose to use expressive colour take a more subjective approach, not trying to be literal or to recreate the colours seen in nature. For this approach to be believable however, the ‘colour statement’ and the interplay of colour and value in the painting must still create a convincing, if not realistic, colour metaphor; a landscape for the viewer to experience in the imagination.
The abstract landscape paintings in this exhibition have all been painted from my imagination. Some may appear to be more realistic, others more abstracted – all are created from my memories and from my experience of landscapes in the UK and on trips abroad. To this extent they are perhaps better described as mindscapes. I don’t tie myself down to naturalistic colour and the viewpoint I take varies; close up, frontal view, looking into the distance or a bird’s eye view.
Creating an image of the landscape as it is observed, however abstracted it may be, carries with it the idea of the artist as a detached, if appreciating and engaged observer. Stepping further into abstract landscape painting, the artist seeks to communicate the experience of and the power of the emotions they feel as part of the world around them. Whether the work is painted fast, painted ‘en plein air’ or created in the studio, whether it is painted from observation or from imagination, whether it is naturalistic or creates a ‘fantasy’ landscape, the essence of landscape painting is that it has the power to evoke our experience of and our wonder in the world around us.