UNDER threat of climate change, contemporary artists are rediscovering Nature. Yet as meltingice sculptures grab the headlines, artists working in an older medium—paint —have gone on quietly responding to the landscapes that inspired Gainsborough, Constable, Turner and Cotman.
Not all of these artists meant to follow a traditional path. At Trent Polytechnic in the 1970s, David Tress had no intention of becoming a painter; he was far more interested in experimental media. However, on summer holidays in Wales, the Pembrokeshire landscape got under his skin. ‘At the end of the three years, I wasn’t convinced by what I’d been doing and had the scandalous thought: “I think I want to be a painter… possibly a landscape painter.”’ Since moving to Pembrokeshire 45 years ago, he has painted all over Britain (the landscapes in his new exhibition at Messum’s London range from Scottish lochs to prehistoric sites in Wiltshire), but the places that inspire him ‘are often places I know well: ordinary slabs of landscape where, just by chance, you happen to be when something happens—an event of light —that transforms something that 10 minutes later would be nothing particular’.
The New Year and a Lit Cloud, 2020 (Fig 6), records such an event in a spot Mr Tress passes all the time outside his local town of Haverfordwest. Although he carries a sketchbook to make outline drawings, the real action takes place in the studio. ‘When you’re sitting in front of something, you’re almost totally absorbed in putting down what’s there; in the studio, gut feeling, memory and imagination are poured into the painting.’
Denne historien er fra November 11, 2020-utgaven av Country Life UK.
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Denne historien er fra November 11, 2020-utgaven av Country Life UK.
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Happiness in small things
Putting life into perspective and forces of nature in farming
Colour vision
In an eye-baffling arrangement of geometric shapes, a sinister-looking clown and a little girl, Test Card F is one of television’s most enduring images, says Rob Crossan
'Without fever there is no creation'
Three of the top 10 operas performed worldwide are by the emotionally volatile Italian composer Giacomo Puccini, who died a century ago. Henrietta Bredin explains how his colourful life influenced his melodramatic plot lines
The colour revolution
Toxic, dull or fast-fading pigments had long made it tricky for artists to paint verdant scenes, but the 19th century ushered in a viridescent explosion of waterlili
Bullace for you
The distinction between plums, damsons and bullaces is sweetly subtle, boiling down to flavour and aesthetics, but don’t eat the stones, warns John Wright
Lights, camera, action!
Three remarkable country houses, two of which have links to the film industry, the other the setting for a top-class croquet tournament, are anything but ordinary
I was on fire for you, where did you go?
In Iceland, a land with no monks or monkeys, our correspondent attempts to master the art of fishing light’ for Salmo salar, by stroking the creases and dimples of the Midfjardara river like the features of a loved one
Bravery bevond belief
A teenager on his gap year who saved a boy and his father from being savaged by a crocodile is one of a host of heroic acts celebrated in a book to mark the 250th anniversary of the Royal Humane Society, says its author Rupert Uloth
Let's get to the bottom of this
Discovering a well on your property can be viewed as a blessing or a curse, but all's well that ends well, says Deborah Nicholls-Lee, as she examines the benefits of a personal water supply
Sing on, sweet bird
An essential component of our emotional relationship with the landscape, the mellifluous song of a thrush shapes the very foundation of human happiness, notes Mark Cocker, as he takes a closer look at this diverse family of birds