Final Project-Jenna and 6,000 miles of Embankment

Jenna and 600 miles of Embankment

This painting began as a montage of photocopies of Jenna hanging from the climbing frame. Her enthusiasm and joy were infectious and I had to use them somewhere in my work. I like the idea of introducing people from other cultures into a commentary of the Fens as our main city, Peterborough, is heavily populated with people from Eastern Europe, Russia, Portugal, India, Pakistan and South America. Jenna is a symbol of the youthfulness of our population and the hope they bring for the future of the Fens.

I liked the vortex of limbs and hoped to keep the sinuous, softer shapes in this work, which reminded me of the interlacing of grasses in the photos I had taken earlier and used in Four Thousand Farms. Some of my colleagues wondered why I would go to the bother of creating a montage and then cover it up and paint over it. To include the montage seemed important to me. Just knowing that she was part of the painting (and you can still see her!) creates something more powerful and interesting. The landscape become more of a commentary than simply a pretty picture. We all play a part in the picture of our communities, but most of the time we are little noticed except by those we are closest to. For me Jenna plays an important part of the development of this painting. I notice her, and hope that when people take time to really examine the painting that they will notice her too, and the important part she plays.

I felt that using small oil pastels had been successful in my earlier work and was attracted by the colours in this small sketch and decided to use it as a spring board for my painting.

As with my previous work I wanted to reference other aspects of the Fens with textures and divisions and that is how I began. In this painting I felt that I would like a more direct contact with the land and added soil and chaff and some seed heads that I had gathered whilst out sketching. I attached these with glue and later painted over them. They become immersed in the painting rather than be a stand out/ stand alone reference. In the bottom right corner there is also part of some sketch book studies for field patterns.
It took me a while to get the composition laid out in a satisfactory way and it has changed from the original but I think that looking at the painting and what works in the final piece is more important to me than slavishly repeating the study.
My horizon has again become more industrial and the 'fencing/gates' on the right continue the comment of battle between man and nature. I think the horizontal lines that run across the painting balance the strong verticals. they seem to embrace the painting and quietly hold it together.

Having recently seen the Hockney exhibition at the RA I can sense his influence in using brighter colours and simple more stylised forms, although my painting is significantly different from his there is another worldliness about them!