Bargaining with Physics (Spring) Painting

Inspired by extensive drawing research in remnants of ancient woodland in northern England, the painting was part of an exhibition 'Revering Ancient Woodland' and came out of a project supported by Durham County Council, Natural England and Hartlepool Borough Council. The project enabled me to work with local schools introducing children and teachers to a magical place with a deep history going back to the last Ice Age. The woods and their river are ever changing but always there rhythmically moving through the seasons. Through my chosen style (semi-realist/ expressionist) I want to enable the viewer to enter the space, explore it in their imagination and feel its energy. The composition plays with rhythms of pattern and colour like music. The panoramic shape mimics our natural way of scanning the scene as one moves through woodland. The asymmetric division line between the two panels enhances this sense of a picture space spanning a wide field of vision. I have developed an intuitive rhythm of tree trunks, branches and their cast shadows, a complex dynamic pattern that leads the eye around and through the space creating depth as do the receding planes of light and dark on the woodland floor. The meandering path and river both lead the eye into the mysterious depth of the woodland. For me this is akin to musical composition which I usually listen to whilst painting. The light is dominated by warm yellow from the low sun but there are moderating cool colours too including the violet blue of blue bells and the intense mid to yellow green of fresh leaves on the woodland floor poking through last autumn’s carpet of dead brown leaves. Although on the face of it the subject is springtime in an oak woodland, there are things in the picture which might raise questions about the nature of the space and its relationship with human culture but each viewer brings to the painting their own preconceptions and emotional response which is beyond my control, as it should be.

Multi-paneled Painting:Oil on Canvas

Original:One-of-a-kind Artwork

Size:59 W x 27.5 H x 1.6 D in

Number of Panels:2

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