'Clearing'

After art school (St. Martin's in London . . . a long time ago!) I went to live in the middle of the huge forest at Thetford, Norfolk.   I love all those conifers and, in Clearing (ii), I am back amongst them.   In the painting the scene is one of devastation and there is a brutality about this destruction though the cause . . . nature or man, is uncertain.   Also uncertain is whether these trees are, like those at Thetford, part of a plantation.   Fading into the background, like an old memory, is a watchtower though this structure seems much bigger than those constructed for controlling just deer. 

I like the suggestion of a narrative in a painting . . . but I also like ambiguity.   I wouldn't want a definitive interpretation.   I want the imagination to be fired.   'Clearing' could refer to an open space within a forest, or to the physical act of clearing away, but also to the possibility of perceiving things more clearly - seeing things anew through changes in understanding . . or memory . . or just the weather.

The 'Clearing' pictures first emerged in 2007.   I began Clearing (ii) a year or so later, after making a number of charcoal drawings.   It too is in charcoal but also acrylic and is the product of lots of re-working.   Consequently it has some thick encrusted parts playing off against more fluid areas.   I want my drawings and paintings to hold some of the changes made during their creation and to work slowly on the viewer . . . gradually offering up more.

Clearing (ii)
Siding
Siding study (vi)
Field
Siding study (iv)
Siding study (iii)
Clearing (ii) study (ii)
Clearing (ii) study (iii)
Clearing (iii)
Clearing (ii) study (iv)
Clearing (ii) study (vi)
Search
Silver Birches
Clearing (iv) study 1 (Flooded Forest)
Clearing (iv) study 2 (Flooded Forest)
Clearing (ii) study (vii)
Forest (ii) study (ii)
At the Margin
At the Margin (ii)
Govt. Vets
Flooded Fields (i)