It is a wonderful thing that the glossy plumage of the Cormorant (Phalacrocorax carbo) is a remarkable match to carborundum (SiC), and that the two share such a black sheen, metallic, almost other-worldly. That they almost share a taxonomic name is another delicious conceit.
Wood, from Charcoal
As the title suggests, this large charcoal study returns the wood to the material from whence it came. It is a like an allegory for the entire site of the duck decoy at Hale and its setting in the bleak landscape of the marsh, compounded by its very inaccessibility. Yet one must be ‘drawn’ back there, again.
The Decoy
I have been revisiting this fascinating landscape feature throughout the year and have come to know something of its moods as well as its many guises. It is a cormorant roost, a scheduled ancient monument, a hidden place and one of Britain’s last remaining duck decoys. Ironically the duck decoy at Hale is at once a lure to death and more latterly a place of life and gathering.
Its appearance reflects a sombre history and many of the trees stand blasted, pointing accusing fingers at the sky and providing convenient roosts for all manner of interesting birds. As access is carefully restricted there is a wonderful sense of secrecy and sacredness as you glimpse across the flood plain to imagine what lurks within.
40x40cm, Oil on Canvas.
Buy now on Saatchi ArtCurrus aurantiaca
The title of this piece is a conceit inspired by the Orange Hawkweed wildflower whose cheery flowers are often found emerging from road verges and scrub across the British Isles. In this hidden location on the banks of the Mersey an abandoned vehicle has emerged, incandescent in its own happy colour, in a quite beautiful glowing palette of orange, violet and browns.
However unfortunate in social and environmental terms one might view its final journey, the fact remains that the subsequent form is pure sculpture. Incongruous yet perfectly positioned at the neck of the thicket, a kind of Tantric deposition at the brink of an ancient brook.
Most potently, I was reminded of Genesis 3:19 and the evidence that nature had already begun the process of quiet assimilation. Nothing would be wasted. The vehicle was leaching its colours into the Earth, the trees and grasses already had the metallic taste in their roots.
With this in mind I created a paint from the wreckage and all the brown pigments in this work are likewise assimilated into the picture. The landscape, the painting, the car, the wildflowers – all are one.
40x30cm, Acrylic and iron oxide on Canvas.
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The Megalithic Shore
The shoreline is littered with sculpture; cast concrete and complex shapes in brick, the ensemble carefully assembled by the vagaries of time and tide. Only in walking a landscape and spending patient hours in pencil, pen and ink is one party to the quiet dignity of an otherwise chaotic scene.
The whole always seems purposeful, and the location particularly enigmatic given its proximity to the busying world that lies within easy reach. The triangular pyramids bind the detritus of the shore in both a practical and poetic sense. They are modern era megaliths, a fitting addition to the heady ritual landscape of the south Liverpool shore.
Pen and Ink, 42x29cm (2016)
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