Denbigh Moors, Oil on Linen. By Jane Morrow
This Piece was the first that I had created since recently moving back to North Wales, and I found the experience of painting it quite overwhelming. Although I felt so joyous, I was also emotional to be reacquainting myself with the landscape of my childhood.
A welsh word springs to mind here: 'Hiraeth'. Not easily translated into English, it essentially refers to deep feelings of homesickness for a place that we can never return to; somewhere that has disappeared into the fabric of time. It is a word that so precisely echoed how I had felt in the years away from my homeland along with the passing of my beloved mother, Lucy, which somehow manifested into my work. Even though I had painted professionally in the years between relocating, it was standing on the wild moor and watching the light move across the landscape, the billowing clouds and swooping birds, that I felt a stillness come over me - for it was then that I knew that I had returned home both physically and spiritually. Feeling compelled, I came back to my studio with the light of the distant sun fresh in my mind and began to paint in a way that I hadn't painted before.
Feelings of longing and yearning are constant themes throughout my work. I only paint things that I am emotionally drawn to and so painting has become a sensuous experience; where I seek to observe the world and notice the small but beautiful things that are all around us. Skies are often at the heart of my composition; I think this must be on account of my always looking out of the window as a child and noticing shapes and stories made by the formations of the clouds. As a young art student in 1997, I remember taking a trip to London. Though, while my fellow students were enthralled by the the likes of the Saatchi Sensation exhibition at the Royal Academy of Art, it was the cloud studies of John Constable and atmospheric work of JMW Turner over at the National Gallery that peaked my interest and inspired a lifelong passion for landscape painting.
Visiting galleries and studying art history has had a profound impact on my work. Whilst I never seek to copy,! believe that by examining brush marks and colours up close and in detail has taught me a great deal when it comes to my artistic techniques.
Studying the trials and tribulations of other artists lives and what drove them to paint with such conviction, has furthermore always inspired me to persevere with an understanding that you can never stop learning and growing.
What is perhaps most influential when it comes to my mind and my work however, is being outside; observing the natural world and absorbing the movement of the light and the shadows. Indeed, living here in the captivating green landscapes of Wales, such inspiration is never far away.
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