Words have been failing me of late – too much wordsmithery during the ‘Great Confinement.’ I’m on a break, or as we used to call it at primary school – playtime. I’ve rediscovered the deep pleasures of painting, and, looking at old photos I’ve taken of landscapes, have re-morphed them in acrylics, oils and pastels. All have a horizon and cobalt blue and ochre yellow. Don’t ask me why – just that I’ve been attracted to them. They’re painted on boards; bread boards, scaffolding, shelving or (my latest) a carving board found in a skip by a friend.
The thumbnail is inspired by Bhatn el Ghoul (belly of the ghoul) in the Jordanian desert while on the 2013 archaeological dig excavating ‘The Great Arab Revolt’. There is nothing there and everything there. Done in acrylic and oil pastel on old scaffolding board . The one below is acrylic with dribbling water. I didn’t have to do much, other than lay on the colours (ah – the romance of the loaded brush) and stop it dribbling when it became Wadi Musa, near Petra. It’s not so much what you, do but how you see and imagine. The textures of the wood are important, going with the grains, cracks and grooves. It was worn by nature just as much as the landscapes.
These will be part of an exhibition ‘Grounded’, to be shown in the new year. Paintings from Britain, Jordan, Turkey, India, and Montana. Watch this space and watch this Earth.
Jan Woolf
