Val Bestwick
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David Bomberg wrote:
“The artist can only depict those situations and experience in which she or he has become intensely involved – knowing every rustle of air, every scent of the earth every step of the way.”
The ‘intense involvement’ for me began with my exploration of Carlton Bank in the North York Moors, where erosion by wind and rain emphasised the scarring of the earth’s surface, initially made by alum mining. Fragile shale is hacked at by the elements and sent slithering down the main gorge.
My painting and drawing has evolved into an expression of the erosion. Paint scraped into, moved and rebuilt in a desire to grab hold of the tactile sensations drawn from the land. The images coming through the paint are pushed out of control, allowed to wander and reform, eventually bringing resolution, with the juxtaposition of fragmented images and controlling structure. Charcoal used on a large scale opens up opportunity for energetic mark-making, producing the sharp contrasts of blackness and whiteness. The forms become simplified, detail emptied out to the point of irreducibility, in an attempt to emphasis the drama.
Many artists approach landscape in search of beauty or the sublime. Eighteen century philosopher Edmund Burke made this distinction between the two:
“Beauty is reassuringly tempered, while the sublime is a way of thinking about excess as the key to a deeper kind of subjectivity.”
I am looking for the sublime.
“The artist can only depict those situations and experience in which she or he has become intensely involved – knowing every rustle of air, every scent of the earth every step of the way.”
The ‘intense involvement’ for me began with my exploration of Carlton Bank in the North York Moors, where erosion by wind and rain emphasised the scarring of the earth’s surface, initially made by alum mining. Fragile shale is hacked at by the elements and sent slithering down the main gorge.
My painting and drawing has evolved into an expression of the erosion. Paint scraped into, moved and rebuilt in a desire to grab hold of the tactile sensations drawn from the land. The images coming through the paint are pushed out of control, allowed to wander and reform, eventually bringing resolution, with the juxtaposition of fragmented images and controlling structure. Charcoal used on a large scale opens up opportunity for energetic mark-making, producing the sharp contrasts of blackness and whiteness. The forms become simplified, detail emptied out to the point of irreducibility, in an attempt to emphasis the drama.
Many artists approach landscape in search of beauty or the sublime. Eighteen century philosopher Edmund Burke made this distinction between the two:
“Beauty is reassuringly tempered, while the sublime is a way of thinking about excess as the key to a deeper kind of subjectivity.”
I am looking for the sublime.
