Landscape Here and Now, featuring the work of five Norfolk artists, Martin Laurance, John Bardell, Sarah Cannell, Tor Falcon and John Midgley is the first exhibition of Wymondham Arts Centre’s 2015 season.

The show runs at Becket’s Chapel from Friday, March 20 to Sunday, April 12 2015 and is open daily, Monday to Saturday, 10am to 5pm and Sunday, 12noon to 5pm, free entry, www.wymondhamarts.com. ​

Martin Laurance, who is curating the exhibition, explained the background to the show: “When the idea of curating an exhibition about landscape painting was suggested to me, I immediately knew that I wanted it to be about contemporary approaches, Landscape Here and Now. I chose artists who are all living and working in the region, out in all seasons, getting their boots muddy and immersing themselves in the experience. Although the initial approach through drawing or direct painting has similarities the outcomes are very different.”

“My work is characterised by exploring the inner reality or ‘spirit of a place’, while Tor Falcon often searches for repeated patterns and shapes. John Bardell walks until a view ‘holds him’. The painting is then created from that single strong moment. Sarah Cannell’s emotional connection to South Norfolk’s marshes leads her to search out a personal response through the medium of a strong graphic line and highly personal colour. John Midgley, by contrast, often works repeatedly from the same motif, searching for that ‘hidden’ abstract quality that gives a painting its real worth.”

“All the work in this exhibition demonstrates that the tradition of landscape painting is still very much alive and well. The British landscape in general and the East Anglian landscape in particular has a deep sense of history, containing both continuity and change that inspires a new generation of contemporary artists.”

Professor Arthur Lucas, Director, Wymondham Arts Centre said: “Martin Laurance is curating a very exciting show to launch our 2015 season. The body of work exhibited by the five artists, all with highly individual approaches, will look superb, revealed in the natural light of the large windows in our medieval chapel.”

Martin Laurance www.martinlaurance.com

Martin Laurance works in a variety of mixed media: oil, acrylic, collage, ink, charcoal, watercolour and gouache, singly or in combinations on paper or canvas. His approach to landscape painting is to convey the spirit and inner reality of a place, going beyond the immediate sensation to something felt and experienced. His paintings are about his experience of being in a particular place. He searches out its uniqueness through drawing and walking, returning to the same places over and over again and building a connection that transcends time and seasons.

John Bardell www.norwich20group.co.uk/John_Bardell

John Bardell likes to be ‘out there’, treading the landscape. When a view speaks and says ‘hold me’, he stops to make a number of drawings for the detail and photographs for the colour. He returns with a canvas to draw the prominent features in charcoal and put in the sky. He works up the detail in the studio, revisiting the site three or four times to check mood and accuracy.

Sarah Cannell www.sarahcannell.co.uk

Inspired by the wildness of the South Norfolk marshes, Sarah Cannell creates dynamic, colourful work, which is her interpretation and response to what she feel is ‘her’ landscape. She loves the process and experimentation that goes hand in hand with painting and has found that over the years, she has incorporated and honed elements to which she is drawn. The black graphic line echoes the shadows cast over the landscape by hedgerows, furrows and trees, helping to create strong compositions, which are also reminiscent of the printmakers’ line.

Tor Falcon www.torfalcon.co.uk

Tor Falcon immerses herself in the landscape so that her pastel drawings can explore, discover and reflect the essential elements of the place that she is in, with it’s underlying geology, weather, rhythm, and repeating patterns. The Wymondham Arts Centre show will feature recent work from Norfolk. See Tor’s blog, Diary of a Wild Place to discover more about her approach to the landscape http://torfalcon.tumblr.com.

John Midgley www.johnmidgley.co.uk

John Midgley approaches his oil paintings with a constant searching for Cezanne’s ‘sensation originale’, making his work vital and personal, a quest for the inherent abstract quality of landscape. In recent years, he has looked at how man-made structures, such as roads and bridges, by bisecting and following contours, help to define natural forms within certain landscapes. He usually works from one ‘motif’ over and over again, putting paintings to one side for a while, until he can return and judge them with hindsight. He then either accepts them as ‘feeling right’, or re-paints or rejects them.

Wymondham Arts Centre is at Becket’s Chapel, Church Street, Wymondham NR18 0PH www.wymondhamarts.com, email [email protected].

—