Time and Tide at The Octagon Theatre Gallery Space

Time and Tide

The Octagon Theatre, Yeovil - 12th May until 20th June 

This collection of paintings and drawings are the results of creative exploration into my environment and experiences in the last three years.   Drawing on memories and emotional responses I translate my encounters in daily life and with the natural world through abstract, expressive work.  

In this exhibition this comes predominantly through abstract seascape and landscape paintings, capturing in paint my return to places of special significance after the lockdown times, but also comes alongside a series of experimental drawings, made in response to the lunar calendar throughout 2021.   Observing this natural marker of time, I am sharing a way in which the moon has become companion, and a reminder of taking a moment to reflect on many things including for me the value of drawing and pausing for a calm moment.  The drawings also recognise the passage of time and the reconnections many people have made to the natural world in recent years and how this connects us on a wider level.

Paintings in this exhibition are directly inspired by many places in the South West, not depicting exact locations but all representative of experience and reflecting on time spent by the ocean in Dorset and Cornwall or travelling across the land.  ‘Winters Morning’ began the series of larger paintings after a crisp and sunny morning walk through the lanes of village of East Coker, and ‘Submerged’ and ‘Under’ are responses to the powerful but soothing solace of sea swimming at Hive Beach and West Bay.  I am recharged, as are many of us, by big skies and light and aim to share this with the viewer.

The work is created often in my home studio surrounded by sketches, photographs and items gathered from my walks, I record colours and motifs and compositions, but I like to explore intuitively using the application of paint.  The process is important to me, the physicality of mark making, and so my work is often abstract as it takes the original focus into an emotional experience.

The series of grid artworks are a painterly response to a digital process i.e. moments captured in time by photographs on my phone.  I photograph every day, many different aspects of my life, a mild obsession to record and remember.  Collecting them and transforming them in this way began with the ‘Somerset Reacquainted’ project in 2020 and I this has developed into further work.  They are an exercise into mark making, meditation and mindful noticing.   I am compelled to paint seascapes and landscapes but also recognise the need to translate abstract thought, explore concepts around time and use these compulsions to better my wellbeing and seek to inspire that in others.