Watercolours
View cataloguePhotography was first, particularly with the big 10x8inch camera with its vast amount of information. It is still a very relevant tool. Then about 20 years ago I started to draw, mostly single ink lines of the island here in Norfolk. I became interested in the way a single line could also give the sensation of a being somewhere with barely any information at all... just the motifs. It also became clear that the line was better for being loose; the more precise it is, the less is the effect. Then came the watercolours, like these here where I try to limit the information to large gestural brush strokes... again each is a motif of our perception of landscape; trees. light in trees, water, rivers, clouds, reflections, a few man made objects etc etc. Finally there are the reliefs and these work on the fascinating but elusive game of making the sensation of being in a place into a physical object. I am working on it.
I find it hard to do these watercolours ‘en plein air’. It may sound facile, but that is the role of the big camera.
These therefore are all imaginings of this estuary where I live; what it’s like, what it was, and what it might become.
When I do this, as with the ink drawings, I am fascinated by how the simplest brush gesture can convey very basic motifs of landscape; land, sky, water, tree and horizon with all the tones, compositions and relationships within.
