This exhibition records three different approaches to choosing what to paint when faced with a dramatic landscape. It begins with a group of paintings that all derive from an exploration of the view across the Thames valley above Pangbourne. I drew coloured oil pastel sketches from different spots along a twenty yard stretch of verge, taking slightly different viewpoints and focuses across the fields to the distant hills. In high summer the fields were dominated by swirling tractor tracks in the lush green wheat. At harvest time the golden yellow corn transformed the views. No two views were exactly the same because each composition reflected the particular balance dictated by the differing light and colour that, together with the linear rhythms, encapsulated the message I wanted to convey. The second group take the form of sections of a 180 degree panorama. These large paintings are made from drawings done on the same spot looking in three different directions. Seen together they give you the sensation of being right there up a cart track to the Ridgeway on a bright summer’s day. The paintings have overlapping visual material where they meet. This extra borrowing ensures that the separate compositions have self contained balances. They are meant to be appreciated as both separate eyefuls but with the added dimension of combining to create a third much wider picture. The onlookers are asked to make this connection for themselves. Thirdly is the series of pictures recording various views, in sequence, of the White Horse hill near Uffington as seen from below. Twenty years ago I painted views from the top of White Horse hill. This time I have painted a series of the hill from the road as it snakes behind foothills and clumps of trees. Taken together they tell a tale in time as one travels past the dramatic hill. It would be possible to create a Chinese style landscape scroll from the information the separate pictures contain.
