Evaluation - 'The Fens'

 ' It is a landscape that is on the outside of a world that exists beyond the horizon'

Focussing on landscape and space this was all about the emotion traveling through the Fens evokes in me, past, present, personal memories capturing a vast emptiness. Sky is 90% of the image, the landscape flat, isolated, bleak yet magnificent, with its trademark rich black peaty soil sits solidly at the bottom.

Outcome:

The Fens

120 x 90cm canvas. Mixed medium, acrylic paint and Fen soil. Dominated by a pale windswept sky, titanium white, ultramarine, cyan and cobalt blue on a red oxide ground. A narrow band of starkly contrasting black/ brown landscape a straight harsh horizon, paint mixed with authentic black soil.

2 days spent wrapped up against the cold wind exploring the idioscynchrocy of the landscape with my camera, imagery of the Fens. ‘Pleine air’ sketches of the dykes, fields, sky and perspective of the diagonal line both in felt pen and colour. Fred Ingrams a local Fen artist brings an inspiring contemporary feel to the landscape, which I find refreshing and inspiring with his vivid use of colour. Casper Friedrich influential with his depiction of space, moody bleakness and his muted colours. Anselm Keiffers use of ash and wood on his paintings inspired me to use the fen soil to bring an authenticity to the work. Back in the studio I developed a series of 9 MDF boards, experimenting with paint styles, mark making and subject matter in preparation for the final canvas. Frustrating, as I prefer to work on a larger scale, I felt constricted by the size of the boards, it felt more of an exercise, which indeed it was. I rushed what was to be the final piece (since painted over in red!) haystack in field – hmmm just didn’t work at all, too figurative & poor perspective. I had tried to do this in a rush and paid the price, not good enough. Frustration building, it had to come out, so I took myself out of the studio to paint alone, I prepared my materials and let rip, it felt good, a release of tension, an explosive 60 minutes of creativity - the sky was unleashed and mother earth grounded. ‘Horizon’ had arrived.

The question is, did I manage to capture that balance of bleakness and magnificence? Although unusual, I've not kept to a rule of thirds, my sky makes up 90% of the painting. I feel the proportions of the painting works, texture was achieved through the Fen soil and the contrast between the sky and landscape provides a hard edginess - masking tape was applied to make sure the horizon line was crisp, blunt and dark, that's how I was feeling (my father was dying) - emotions reveal themselves. The base red oxide peeps above the horizon, providing a glow to the harshness of the black soil. The windswept sky sucks me in, its vastness engulfs me into the landscape, makes me feel the cold biting wind yet it feels safe.

Yes I'm pleased with the painting, for me it accurately depicts how I was feeling at the time and it does for me, capture the expansiveness of the Fens, you?