Last August I was lucky enough to be invited to Guernsey by the Sula Gallery. I had never visited the Channel Islands before and was thrilled to discover it is a landscape painter’s paradise with a stunning ‘Island Light’. I particularly loved the tiny coves on the west coast with their fringes of wild flowers and grasses back lit by the late afternoon sun. Boats silhouetted against the morning light at Bordeaux were another favourite as were the majestic cliffs around Le Petit Port. I live and work in Cornwall and spend a lot of time painting on the Scillies which have the same quality of light and unspoilt natural beauty. My work is always concerned with light and its ability to transform and emotionally charge the landscape. The Guernsey coastline is wild and stirring and I wanted the work to convey this. I don’t have a set way of working - sometimes I use impasto paint and sometimes thin glazes which are rubbed and scraped back. The work is intuitive and the methods and materials vary according to the mood and atmosphere that I am trying to convey. Fleeting effects of light and weather are always important – they can suffuse a scene with extraordinary beauty and I struggle to convey that emotional impact.
I work both outside and in the studio. On the spot work is usually done on small panels using gouache or acrylic though recently I have discovered oil bars – great fat expressive sticks of oil paint which can be worked on paper and dry fast making them a delight to use outside. The studio paintings are more considered and planned, I work from studies, charcoal drawings done on the spot and notes about how the day felt. I love both ways of working – successful paintings made outside are immediate but studio paintings can go off on their own journey and end up surprising you – which is really exciting. I have really enjoyed making this series of work and am very grateful to Hayley Mallett at Sula Gallery for making it possible.