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Lawrence Coulson
3 Majesty And Mist
Giclée edition of 150
Image 18" x 18" Framed £425
4 Shoreline Dreams Giclée edition of 150 Image 10½" x 36" Framed £475 5 You Are So Much More Canvas edition of 95 Image 28" x 28" Framed £650
6 Estuary Silence
Canvas edition of 95
Image 24" x 24" Framed £525
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August and ComeWithMe represent the romance of part- nership where two people are perceived alone in a big and bold landscape – but not this time near the sea which is something of a departure for Coulson. “The figures are generic but they are a couple and there is a romantic nature to the image,” he says as they are two people together but just tiny specks in the landscape. As David Lee notes “We relish the charm of the peaceful vista with the dream topping of fluffy cloud formations. Crimson sun- sets and numinous moons racing behind clouds stop us irresistibly in our tracks. There, we ponder the bigness of Nature and frequently measure it against our own individual insignificance.” In the seaside trio of images You Are SoMuchMore , Estuary Silence and Shoreline Dreams , Coulson incorporates his familiar themes of big skies and a flat sea but with a more assured and measured tone. Fascinated by the atmosphere of places rather than their mere geography he says he has never been a picture postcard painter
A self-taught artist and son of the well-known landscape artist Gerald Coulson, he has been plying his popular trade in beautiful and arresting sunset landscapes for years. “The big skies and landscapes have been my hallmark and my calling card,” explains Coulson who has always painted in a very disciplined and technically brilliant style. Working in oils, he alternates between painting on panels and more recently big, linen canvases. He spends a lot of time priming and sanding the panels to achieve a smooth surface, and is a great believer in the preparation of his blank canvas before the painting comes to life. Using both brushes and fingers he builds up layers to achieve deep, luminous, and layered colour “I love the 'hands on' approach,” says Coulson “in feeling totally connected to the painting it is as if a little piece of me goes into each one”. Working on several canvases at a time, he works in a dedicated and driven way keeping long studio hours in a place he calls ‘an oasis of calm and tranquillity’.
An admirer of the East Anglian School of painters such as John Constable, Henry Bright and Edward Seago, Coulson has been heavily influenced by their landscapes of a similarly wide open nature. “From a young age I always was drawn to these landscapes,” says Coulson, who remembers his father kick- start- ing his passion for painting by getting him to paint copies of Victorian landscapes from a Sotheby’s catalogue. It has been the bedrock of his career and as David Lee concurs, Coulson is simply redefining a British artistic move-
and feel uplifted by its enormity and beauty.” One of the most arresting images in the new collection Majesty AndMist , is a beauti- ful composition of a single stag deer staring out through an avenue of trees. “I was walking in the grounds of a stately home on a misty October afternoon and just came across this stag. I took a photograph, and the image became the start of the painting for me,” explains Coulson, who believes this painting is a pivotal piece
for him, both in taking on a new style and in the subject matter. It has also been very well received by collectors of Coulson’s work who have responded favourably to
ment. “Like the famous British land- scape artists of the past, Coulson is continu-
ing a long tradition of feeding on human desire to commune with nature
the quiet calm and dignity of the stag in a soft autumnal landscape.
FINE ART COLLECTOR SPRING 2013
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