I am exhibiting at
Gallerytop near Matlock, Derbyshire as part of a group show of landscape painters. (Kristan Baggaley, Heather Young, Martin Decent, Kellie Miller, Harry McArdle, Lewis Noble, James Wheeler) In addition to my four pictures exhibited in London there a three new ones shown below.
Allt Dearg Mor,
Black Cuillins, Skye (sold)Not the name of the peak but of the lively stream that cascades down the mountain and accompanies the walk to Bruach na Frithe. High up on the hillside is an isolated cottage looking so vulnerable against the backdrop of shattered volcano. The challenge was to capture this sublime setting and reflect it in the calm pools, and as ever to leave little trace of my passing in the paint. To be more painterly would be to litter the setting with urban artworld concerns and distractions. It is how nature actually looks in its infinite detail that excites me, not how I can then distort or reduce it.
Ribblehead,
Langstrothdale, North Yorkshire
Have been meaning to paint this for a few years now. North of Ingleton above the waterfalls one emerges onto a plateau of limestone, fluted by wind and rain, stranded boulders here and there, sinkholes, and strange plants. Ancient tropical sea-beds end up here in north yorkshire and suddenly it is plain to see that all human life is a tiny and temporary interlude. We may not survive but the Earth will, the only evidence of us will be a seam of exposed strata millions of years hence, a fossil viaduct. Such are the strange voyages of thought that solitude in this place inspire.
Swirral Edge,
Helvellyn, CumbriaI have climbed Helvellyn several times, firstly aged eleven with the family and friends. Later on an art college field trip I could persuade only one other student to climb it with me, the majority opting for an afternoon smoking roll-ups in Glenridding. We caught the light perfectly and I did two paintings based on that climb, sold one of them to a dog-walker who used to pass by my studio window at Loughborough. Climbing hills was always easier after that, I was getting paid for it.
This picture is painted from a climb in late october as the low sun bursts under the clouds, thoughts turn to getting down before darkness. I think next time I will take a tent and stay up there for the full show.
The next painting, just completed is another for my regular customer E. Findlay whose father served in world war 2. Operation Bluecoat was the attempt to break out from the Normandy beach-head in 1944. Muir Findlay of the Scots Guards was a crew member in a Churchill tank. The countryside was very difficult for tank warfare with hedges and sunken lanes laying across the planned routes of advance. Crews were 'black and blue' or sometimes knocked senseless by the buffeting received within the confines of their tanks. With infantry often unable to keep pace in support and sometimes finding it impossible to communicate with their tanks there was much need for improvisation of new plans. On Hill 226 south of Caumont whilst tank officers assesed the position and briefed the crews there came a devastating counter-attack from the highly advanced German Jagdpanther armoured artillery. With greater range, more powerful engines and precision optics on their powerful 88mm guns they easily outclassed the British Churchills, often making a kill with each shot. The 3 German guns destroyed 8 Churchills in twenty minutes, Muir's tank was hit but he was able to escape though fellow crew were not so fortunate.
1. Boys on the shore, Tyninghame, Scotland
2. Cold Black Cliff, Hopegill Head, Cumbria
3. Glen Sligachan, Skye. Scotland
Swirral Edge, Helvellyn, Cumbria
Does this mean I like his work?
No, there is a deeper level of understanding, there is dirty wire under the polished gallery floorboards.
To fully understand his prominence one must be aware of the cold war context in which Mark Rothko rose to fame. American abstract expressionist painters were funded and promoted by the Farfield Foundation and the CIA during the 1950s. This promotion extended to the funding of art periodicals throughout Europe, in Britain the magazine 'Encounter' , unwittingly edited by Stephen Spender was funded by the CIA. Its mission was to position American art so it became favourably viewed by left-wing Europeans who (it was thought) might otherwise be swayed by the Soviet realism of the era. (not just tractors, read all about it in 'The Cultural Cold War' by Frances Stonor Saunders)
Abstract expressionism therefore is not prominent on merit but rather at the will of US foreign policy makers.
Such soft power is obvious enough in the output of Hollywood and the US music industry, and there is a healthy public awareness of this. Not so in art, this important perspective on the rise of US abstract painting is mysteriously ignored by the media.
It is assumed that large scale gestural painting is the very emblem of 'freedom' in art but I contest that this aesthetic is the deliberate drowning out of a language to replace it with a repetitive shout. A shout emanating from a suspicious place. These painting fail to communicate anything, there is no scope within their narrow vocabulary. Art as a vehicle for engaging a mass audience with important content has been replaced with a 'heroic' biography of an all american 'underdog' whose greatest preoccupation is the huge rectangular daub. Meanwhile your consciousness has been subtly altered in accordance with the aims of the CIA. 'Gard' bless the USA.