Now is my winter

About

During the winter, Nature absorbs all into itself, leaving a seemingly blank canvas onto which the spring will write itself. It is a time of increasing darkness offset by sparkling frosts and dangerous snows; white and black, life and death, bleak and beautiful. There are those who would write the depths of winter off as an exercise in white, the ultimate blank canvas. This is akin to calling spring green, or autumn brown it misses the ever present subtlety of the spectrum which is polarised from white to black. These two contrasts absorb all between them, but that is not to say that other shades do not exist for fleeting moments in splendid isolation before they are subsumed. The pieces in this exhibition are understated in their colouration, rarely straying beyond light or dark, but with enough of a hint at alternative pigmentation to elevate them from predictable to subtly unexpected. For those works that repose at either pole, their drama comes from the way they are created collage, impasto, construction by using singularity of colour to their advantage, the emphasis falls on formation rather than subject. This too is similar of winter, where one becomes so much more aware of the formation of the landscape when it is stripped back to its bare essentials; natural construction takes centre stage over fleeting colour and seasonal embellishment. A delicate and profound balance is struck time after time; a blank canvas with all the hallmarks of life and past life writ with both subtlety and drama.