New Tondo Landscape Paintings

On the back of the walk that I had undertaken at the North Norfolk Coast, I began to experiment with a series of graphite drawings on paper which were created fairly quickly and on a relatively small scale. In creating these works I attempted to vary the size and shape of the pieces which involved deviating from a straightforward rectangular format as well as removing and burning areas of the composition.

Coastal Landscape Studies, Graphite on Paper, 2015

Via my experimentation I hoped to abstract various elements of the landscape that I was depicting, so that whilst retaining many of its original features it had the appearance of slipping and changing into something else. The black and white monotone quality of the work helped to create the impression of starkness and bleakness, whilst I hoped that the fragmentary feel created the impression of something that had broken away and become unachored from its mooring in reality.

An artists whose work I have been researching is that of Christopher Cook. Returning from India in the mid 90s Cook was inspired by the ruggedness and ubiquitous grey tonality of much of the surrounding area of his studio in Porthleven, West Cornwall. Cook began a new working process involving liquid graphite on paper. 

Cook sought to engage with the distressed landscapes of Cornwall, which he saw as exerting a powerful influence on his work. Discarded tin mines and china clay pits had created a scene of desolation within the landscape ousting nature from the land. Cook's graphite works function as a hybrid between drawing and painting, the marks, stains, runs and deposits always evading full control.

Cook has attempted to create a dual identity within his paintings as a way of giving them an edge. The work referenes the landscape and human structures that respond to it, however they are rarely resolved with any consistency into a legible space. Blots, wipes and marks offer a particular pattern for the viewer to interpret.

Christopher Cook, the present place, graphite in oil and resin on coated paper, 2000, 72 x 102cm

Christopher Cook, the great divide, graphite in oil and resin on coated paper, 2000, 72 x 102cm

Christopher Cook, influx, graphite in oil and resin on coated paper, 2000, 72 x 102cm

One of the aspects that I find particularly effective within Cook's work is the fashion with which he alludes to the reality of the landscape without actually making it completely apparent. Whilst using a figurative language in order to construct his compositions there are many aspects of the work which are ambiguous forcing the viewer to take a closer look in order to attempt to piece together what it is that they are looking at. At times this makes for slightly uncomfortable viewing due to the paired down grey colouring as well as the fashion in which clearly recognizable features appear to drift off and blend into less identifiable features and patterns. Many of the marks that Cook uses look although they have been used to excavate the surface of the works rather than as a way to create pattern and depth. 

Another element of the work that I am keen to experiment with is the use of colour. My aim is to escape from the brightly coloured experiments of my earlier works and relate the colours back to the coastal landscape that I am referencing. I am hoping to find some way of marrying the figurative and more abstract elements of my compositions to create the impression that something is being alluded to as opposed to being directly referenced. Using the afore mentioned drawings I created two circular collages which I hoped to use as a reference in order to create two further circular paintings.

Rather than introducing geometric patterns to break up the surface of the compositions as with my earlier experimentation, my aim was to create some form of distortion that was inherent within the pieces. By creating drawings using the marks and patterns derived from the physical landscape of the North Norfolk Coast and subsequently creating collages to be used as a reference point for my paintings I hoped that the sense of undulation and movement alluded to the passage of time whilst simultaneously relating back to the landscapes from which they had come.

Works in Progress, Oil Paint on MDF

I also attempted to use a muted colour pattern within my compositions, referencing the colours back to the original photographs of the places from which I was deriving the imagery. My aim in creating these pieces was to create something which although containing references and traces from the landscape also juxtaposed both representational and abstract elements as a way of creating an ambiguous interpretation but with an obvious link to the landscape from where the imagery had been derived.

Coastal Landscape Study I, Oil on MDF, 70 x 70cm

Coastal Landscape Study, 2015, Oil on MDF, 70 x 70cm

I feel that these two pieces are partially successful in achieving the aims which I intended for them. The combination of marks used to create the surface although not completely obvious, have a link to the landscape creating the impression of a trace, mark or something which has been embedded within something else. The process of subduing my pallette has enabled the pieces to connect to the original places from which the visual material was derived. By creating a sense of distortion that is embedded within the works rather than sitting on top of it it has helped to link the work back to the landscape as well as unifying the compositions. The round tondo shape helps to enhance the feeling that these are objects as well as creating a sense of ambiguity rather than them conforming to a more conventional rectangular composition.

However in terms of relating back to my original ideas in relation to place and memory there are certain aspects where I feel that the work is less successful. Although making a reference to place via the use of marks, shapes and colours the overriding sensation relates more strongly to pattern and composition, whereby the marks produced blend and merge together in order to produce the imagery. Perhaps by using a more conventional and recognisable image of the landscape it would make the imagery more visually compelling as well as creating a direct relationship with the places depicted. I feel that this would work well alongside the use of colour. Similarly by making the compositions less abstract it would have the effect of making them more personal, less subjective and more obviously about the experience of being in a particular landscape. Once again the round shape of the tondo although visually compelling feels quite separated from the experience of being in the landscape.

Psychogeography and Walking at the North Norfolk Coast

'The study of the precise laws and specific effects of the geographic environment consciously organized or not, on the emotions and behaviour of individuals.' Guy Debord (Bauder & Di Mauro, 2008; 23)

Will Self walked across Los Angeles to Hollywood writing a book about his experience and the impact of the environment on the human psyche. He chose a route taking him through the grittiest suburbs, 'un-places' and 'interzones' in search of a new kind of urban beauty. Throughout the walk he chose to muse on the power of walking to connect us to place, time and memory evoking the spirit of other walkers. Via the process of walking Self sought to explore not only the outer journey of place but also an inner journey of the spirit and imagination. 

Will Self, during his walk across Los Angeles.

In part Self was inspired by the french situationists and their charismatic leader Guy Debord. The situationists utilised a revolutionary technique derive- 'a drift' on foot without a route, the purpose or destination was supposed to challenge the goal-orientated walks of city commuters. The situationists sought to absorb the urban ambience, using the information they gathered in order to produce pedestrian derived maps of the city. They were pioneers of notions relating to psychogeography, that is to say the study of the effects of geographical settings consciously managed or not, acting directly on the mood and behaviour of the individual.

The concept of psychogeography has a strong relationship with my own research in relation to walking and memory. In the process of creating images of familiar places which have somehow been manipulated, warped and distorted I aim to question how this may relate to the concept of memory and the fashion in which memories fade, change, alter and blur as a result of the passing of time leading to a blurring of the boundary between the familiar and unfamiliar and the past and the present.

'.... When you give yourself to places, they give you yourself back, the more one comes to know them, the more one seeds them with the invisible crop of memories and associations that will be waiting for you when you come back, while new places offer up new thoughts, new possibilities. Exploring the world is one of the best ways of exploring the mind and walking travels both terrains.' (Solnit, 2001; 13)

As part of my ongoing research I took a trip to the North Norfolk Coast with a view to taking a walk at Burnham Overy Staithe in order to gather visual information that would be useful to inform further artwork. Burnham Overy Staithe has particular significance for me on account of the fact that it is a place that I have regularly visited and walked throughout my childhood and as an adult.

The walk to Burnham Overy Staithe beach from the car park encompasses and encapsulates the feeling of being in a state of flux, transition and unrest. The salt marshes running alongside the sea wall ebb and flow in accordance with the tide, the racing streams of wet water cutting passages through the mud of the marshes, constantly eroding and altering the morphology of the landscape.

 

Photographic panoramas taken during my walk at Burnham Overy of the Salt Marshes.

After traversing the one mile walk along the undulating path towards the beach, which rises above the surrounding marshland the walker is greeted by the site of a sprawling expanse of dunes which form a solid seemingly impenetrable barrier between the sea and the inland. The rising and falling dunes form a series of ridges, crests and gorges carved out of the surrounding sandy landscape. The entire walk along the sea wall, over the dunes and along the beach contains within it an atmosphere of flux and change as if constantly evolving, via the process of being de-constructed and re-formed.

Photographic panoramas taken during my walk at Burnham Overy of the Sand Dunes.

  

 In my mind this landscape, seemed like a perfect starting point in order to create a new body of work. Not only did it contain within it personal memories, on account of the fact that this was a place that I had repeatedly returned to throughout my life, from an early age. The morphology of the landscape formed via the interaction with the elements and in a constant state of movement tied in with ideas surrounding the transient and ellusive nature of memory, constantly changing, reforming and shifting. 

Bauder H. & Di Mauro, S. E. (2008) 'Critical Geographies: A Collection of Readings.' Kelowna: Praxis (e) Press. (Essay entitled: Introduction to a critique of Urban Geography, 1955, Guy Debord)

Solnit, R (2001) 'Wanderlust.' London: Verso