This collection was born from a period of reflection; an unconscious traversing of the elements accumulated over the last thirty years that I have spent honing my skill as an artist. These elements, namely light, space and atmosphere, are seemingly now my calling card; traits for which my work has become known. Whilst revisiting the cornerstones of my self-taught journey of learning, I have also injected more warmth and power to the colour palette used, to breathe new life into classic techniques and compositions for A Darker Light . The inestimable quest to evolve and refine technique through experimentation, and on occasion an alchemy of accident and good luck, is the overarching goal of any artist. Sometimes a new idea works, sometimes it doesn't, but it then might lead to a stage or process that does. For me, any practice that enables me to capture a beautiful subject and do justice to the bounteous natural landscapes we are fortunate enough to have all around us in Great Britain is a route worth travelling. I have taken great joy and inspiration from attending art fairs this year. The wealth of styles and techniques opened my mind and prompted a period of experimentation with a variety of surfaces, different mediums and new techniques. I awoke each morning with a head full of ideas and inspiration, enthused and eager to push my previously established boundaries and put my new ideas to the test. I have been particularly delighted with the effect I have developed using pastels, ground to a fine dust which I add to panels to create silhouettes of buildings, before then building up colour with impressionistic style and light.
my collection while I was waiting for my new paintings to dry on the racks in the studio. Given my focus on light within these pieces, it immediately resonated with me and I felt it would represent the work well. The natural light that appears as dawn breaks or dusk falls is my favourite light to capture. At these times everything is in a state of flux, shadows travel and perspective shifts, and there is a finite period of time in which to commit the scene to memory. I begin with a simple pencil line to denote the horizon, before I map out the rest of the composition in my head and begin applying colour in oil across the panel, after which I blend it all with fingers and then again with a fine brush. I repeat this process until I achieve the desired effect, and the work in front of me does justice to the landscape I see vividly in my mind’s eye. I still take immense enjoyment from gathering my own reference shots, and I have been known to hare off with my camera at a moment’s notice if I spot a particularly striking sunset from my studio window. I often visit my cottage on the north Norfolk coast for a change of scenery and, as part of my continued experimentation, I would like to create industrial, gritty pieces; I have in mind the towering gantry cranes at the Felixstowe Docks. After dark, the little lights on the cranes come on and reflect back from the water below, and I can envisage already how I would like to paint them. Casting my gaze further afield, the only other country that appeals to my aesthetic in terms of having scenery I would love to visit and paint is rural France. It has a sense of space and remoteness that greatly attracts me, and the light quality is beautiful. Although my heart still beats for the incomparable landscapes of Britain and resolutely belongs here, in our fair and pleasant land…
Being a self-confessed Gary Numan fan, I am happy to admit that the title A Darker Light came from a live EP of his that I noticed in
LAWRENCE COULSON, 2017
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