Colour, atmosphere and emotional connections shape Laura Hodgson, Ali Moreton and Rachel Payne‘s landscapes in new exhibition LAND MARKS, currently at The North Wall in Summertown.
Having known each other for 10 years, its taken until now to bring their works together in this new art show where their distinctive styles, complement each other through expressive mark making.
“We thought it would be fascinating to bring our works together,” they explain. “As female artists, our experiences of being in landscapes shapes our artistic responses. However, it is the way landscapes make us feel when we are experiencing them, and subsequently how we respond on site and in the studio that really brings us together as artists.”
‘As female artists, our experiences of being in landscapes shapes our artistic responses’
Having started their North Wall exhibition journey two years ago, they noticed that despite their different approaches and media, their artworks had commonalities.
“We each express emotional as well as aesthetic responses to landscapes through our making processes and our use of colour, tone and mark making. So while we expected the artworks to complement each other, it was only when we began curating Land Marks at the North Wall that we appreciated how much our pieces speak to each other. It has been very exciting to see it coming together, ” they add.
‘it was only when we began curating the north wall exhibition that we appreciated how much our pieces speak to each other’
So who are they? Dr Rachel Payne runs the MA Education: Artist Teacher Practice course at Oxford Brookes and her landscapes are inspired by her hikes in the Cotswolds. She uses photographic material and memory to generate responses through a dialogue with mark making, colour application and media, which subsequently informs how the paintings materialise.
Ali Moreton and Laura Hodgson are also teachers of art and artists. Ali paints small plein-air works that reflect the seasons, moods and weather. Her larger paintings however are more abstract celebrations of colour of light. The colourist immerses herself in the atmosphere, location, weather and emotion which all feed into her small paintings.
These field sketches inform her larger studio paintings, where colour predominates in expressing connections to a landscape.
Laura Hodgson on the other hand explores concepts of time and place through mixed media. Inspired by local areas like the Wittenham Clumps and other areas off the beaten track in Snowdonia, Devon and Cornwall, she collects moments and experiences of the land through drawing and intuitive mark-making in small sketchbooks.
Her work then develops through a history of layers evolving in a constant conversation between self, process and experience.
LAURA HODGSON, ALIÂ MORETON AND RACHELÂ PAYNE: LAND MARKSÂ RUNS AT NORTH WALL UNTIL OCTOBER 17. https://www.thenorthwall.com/whats-on/laura-hodgson-ali-moreton-and-rachel-payne-land-marks/
