Every Waking Moment

Solo Exhibition at Strathearn Gallery Crieff

Every Waking Moment by Helen Glassford

Each landscape, has an atmosphere and climate of its own. As you turn the corner and face the sun, the wind now at your back, the ambience shifts. With you and you within it.

This is an exhibition, about these moments, the natural language of nature and the connections we have with it. Noting the shifts in air, light, wind, the fast and fleeting flurries, interspersed with slower, timeless pauses.  Light diamonds dance on the lochan, choreographed by the north wind. Disappearing as quickly as they came by the orchestration of passing clouds. Almost imperceptible changes but there all the same. At other times peaty darkness drives through with January squalls leaving a noisy presence that lingers. Later, a silent twilight which has an awareness of its own. Every minute the atmosphere changes we are simply the participants or perhaps custodians of those moments. They are there to be sensed, there to be noticed and to be part of and inspired by.   

These oil paintings are my way of communicating what I see and experience when in the landscape whether it be in North East Fife where I live or in the more remote areas that I love to explore, in the hope that others may see it and experience it too.

Layers

A small group of work tied together with thoughts around simplicities and complexities. The immediate response to a landscape needs to hold fast throughout the making of a painting yet giving allowances for the time away from a source to mould, build and add a greater depth of meaning. As though layering time and life together through the use of paint. Forms come and go, light is both certain yet fragile. I’m always sensitive to narrative of the weather, the stories it can tell. These paintings form a small group of work which will be available soon from my Open Studios event at the end of April.

Looking Back

This last year has been one of experimentation and re-evaluation. It’s an interesting process to allow yourself to do this for such a lengthy period. One fraught with doubts and fears but liberating at the same time. There have been many eureka moments as I have pushed paint to the maximum and explored theory and new ideas to the full. From a more abstract expressionist approach to a finer distilled and thoughtful handling of paint. My intention, to find a place that gives me the greater freedom to explore the inner/narrative ideas, of the personification of landscape and life. Where there has been doubt it is usually when my approach has changed so radically but yet there’s an inner buzz that reassures me when I know it still hits the spot. Questions as to why come forth. A year on I know now that each and every approach is valid, landscape and myself being the centre. like the weather and the accompanying ideas there are many variables, ethereal and changing.

The piece below is one of these eureka moments of having captured something different. It’s a thoughtful piece and perhaps a defining one from this period of flux.

Looking Back

Oil on Board 40x40cm

 
 

Amorphous Thoughts.

It is nature, not to describe or portray but to discover. Horizon lies come and go, appearing and disappearing as distance becomes momentarily tangible and land masses float.

Simple terms; Coast, Sky, Cloud, Light, Ground, Air. Seeking the core of each becomes primal, almost. Thoughts of space, about space, beyond space sends you on a journey of discovery. Sea becomes Land, Light becomes mass. Expanding the realms. Sounds need air to be heard.

 
 
 

Cultivate

“Awake!, arise! the hour is late!
Angels are knocking at thy door!
They are in haste and cannot wait,
And once departed come no more.
Awake! arise! the athlete’s arm
Loses its strength by too much rest:
The fallow land, the untilled farm
Produces only weeds at best. ”
— Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Seize the day! This last month has been a turning point for me, new ideas and renewed energy have led to a very active and productive month in the studio. Painterly decisions made, brave steps forward throwing off those lurking, invisible shackles. Several large paintings are on the go for forthcoming exhibitions and open competitions. Fallow periods are useful: research, drawing, travelling, thinking but its the action of painting that brings it all to life, where sense is made and to cultivate the painterly decisions which are then intuitively made when in the throws. Like when seeing the first appearance of the snowdrops and aconites I breathe a sigh of relief to know that time is of the essence and more importantly yours to cultivate.

With this newly found light today I have added three new works on paper to my online shop.

 
 
 

Like the Tide

The push and pull of a painting is a challenge I relish, finding the right marks and mood, balance and tone. Somedays the need is for a greater abstraction, others a simple narrative. Horizons come and they go again. Coupled with an inner narrative, freedom of speech and a little bravery thrown in paintings can arrive at their final resting place, with the desired intensity that has been a thread from the start. Other days they do not find this, then you start again. There’s no shame in deciding a painting is not ready, no frustration either just the knowledge that there will be another day to find the right stage of the tide.

Take This Longing

Oil on Board 35x30cm 2023

 
 

By the light of the Moon

‘……And They Danced.…’ - Edward Lear The Owl and The Pussy Cat

My fascination for painting the night sky continues. This time with the influence of the poem by Lear, The Owl and The Pussy Cat. A joyful journey of non humans reflecting on togetherness.

And They Danced

Oil on Board

30x25cm

Please email for details

 
 

Life Cycles

As I work through a painting it can go through several stages before it finds its place. They take on a life of their own. From the first simple touches that ground the piece they can become complex as I work through finding the right space and feel. Rough and raw, smooth and silky, rhythm, energy, line and light. All of these things and more all jostle in varying accents to find their place. Looking and listening, recalling the original thoughts. Paint is removed and applied, over and over, picking up time and history along the way. Then the tipping point comes, intuition perhaps, and in my case often the need to simplify. Taking away the equivalent of unnecessary words in a script, areas are defined, contrasts are made and tones are set. Abstracting, creating what will be come close to being the final image.

“Yes, though I touch it. it is a dream”

Charlotte Bronte - Jane Eyre

 
 

Putting a marker down

I write this on a Tay grey sodden mid January morning, it is beautiful. An eerie quietness fills the spaces. I walked this morning, meandering along the deer paths of my local wood. Heavy air, the drip, drip, drip of the over burdened Scots Pines. Light gently persuading, biding it’s own time. The wood is small, but with such variety that it feels much larger. It has everything, even in winter, including those hopeful sight lines to the fallow fields beyond. Like the boundaries of the wood January marks the end of a year but the start of many things, including new hope, new ideas and new adventures.

I have added six paintings to my website which are now available. If you see anything that resonates please get in touch.

 

Old Friend • Oil on Board • 

 


The desire to do something better

“...if any artist can ever be happy, I suppose it’s the same with composers and writers and sculptors. One never really feels one’s done what one could have done- you always feel, I could have done better. And of course, if you ever really feel ‘I’ve done it’, you’d become complacent, and there’d be nothing left to aim for. And it’s just this desire to do something better all of the time that keeps me going on’ ”
— Sheila Fell
 
 

Quiet Sunday

Beginning, middle and end. It starts with a thought, a line, an idea takes seed. Inspired by each and everything encountered. Last night I watched a film, the imagery was truly magical, yesterday I had a conversation about pea green boats and magic carpets. Perhaps this makes my work not just about landscape, but more.