Via San Michele Painting

Artist’s statement – February 2021 Landscape can be viewed as the wide-open countryside which is the traditional understanding of the subject, but an alternative view could be the arrangements of neighbourhood buildings and local streets, or even the interiors of our rooms, giving a wider scope for interpretation. This wealth of subject matter is the object of Clive’s artwork and he tries to use three words to guide his thoughts when he considers making a landscape painting, these are - ‘Place, Pattern & Presence’. Place is mostly somewhere where Clive has been and which has impressed him, and it is his starting point and reason for wanting to share that experience. Pattern may seem to be a little odd with reference to landscape, but the term can be used to assess a series of forms, boundaries, & textures that are visually interesting in a landscape view and will carry through to be the framework of a painting. Presence is the ‘life’ of a painting which gives the viewer a shared experience of what a picture is trying to express. These guides are a productive means of mapping out an image when Clive uses them as a starting point for a painting, also he often incorporates a visual journey of abstract thoughts into the picture that may summarise a particular experience of a given subject. If these are manifest in a picture they may appear obscure at first glance, but which with deeper investigation reveal links to the observed location. Clive uses underlying core colours to set the basic tone of paintings, often using contrasting colours to emphasise form and pattern and to provide vibrancy and balance within the composition. Most of his paintings are a square shape rather than a landscape format, this is to encourage the viewer to ponder what may lie outside the boundaries of this restricted form. Acrylic and oil paint are Clive’s chosen mediums with the additional use of pastel crayon, graphite pencil, and charcoal when he wants to emphasise structure. Most of his work is on prepared plyboard as this supports heavy mark-making and thick impasto and provides a firm base ideal for scraping back or revealing underpainting. Painters that have influenced Clive’s work are mostly from the pre-and post-war Cornish School such as Peter Lanyon, Patrick Heron, Ben Nicholson, and Victor Passmore. More recently he admires the work of Barbara Rae and American artists, Wolf Khan and Brian Rutenberg.