Nearby my house is the local river, a relatively natural space within the city that throughout the past year has been popular with local residents and myself as a calm retreat from the stresses of pandemic life. This is a busy and well liked area nestled in suburbia, and it has become somewhere I visit regularly, one small good thing to come out of the pandemic. My work will aim to reflect the relative tranquillity of the area, which itself is surrounded by hectic urbanity. The work will allude to how the lockdowns of the past year gave many people a significant change of pace of their lives; time to think, and go on walks to the local sanctuary space. My hope is to reflect the solace of the space with the work, and that people will see the work and my love of the space through the work, and relate positively with this sentiment. I decided to do four pieces, each in a different medium, in order to try to bring differing perspectives to the view I had chosen to study. This variety is intended to mimic the variety of different versions of the view that is visible to you depending on time of day, season and weather. It is never quite the same twice. I planned to situate these pieces by this bridge, the bridge from which my chosen view can be seen.

The work is simple, and predominantly concerned with mapping the shapes the view takes in geometric fashion, with one exception. The second piece being more cognisant of textures and tones. With the Geometric collage’s simplicity I was aiming to bring the focus only on to the shapes and basic colours of the landscape with a few abstract details. This is designed to reduce the landscape to as few component parts as possible whilst still being recognisable, in order to draw attention to how people can view landscapes as a coming together of distinct shapes rather than as when we view them in nature, one whole mass of colour. It’s about seeing the landscape in a slightly different way than usual. The further renditions are more along the lines of loving exploration than interesting juxtaposition. In the second piece I wanted to do a drawing in oil bar of the landscape that captured its tones, textures and forms, as well as feature an expressiveness that captures the emotion imbued in the landscape. It is still an abstract drawing in a way, it’s unrefined, but I think it presents a expression of the landscape in its scrawls. The third work is a continuous line drawing, which is a type of drawing I have been enjoying recently. Much like work two it aims to capture

The third work is a continuous line drawing, which is a type of drawing I have been enjoying recently. Much like work two it aims to capture the emotive feelings that come wrapped up with a familiar, comfortable landscape, I hope that I have managed to capture something of that emotion and aura with this small drawing.

The fourth piece is a drawing ink work. The medium allows for use of strong line, and some tonality within the work which seems a fitting way to end the series. It is trying to synthesize these two elements together and present a composition that guides the eye to the focal point of the central bridge in the distance. The pieces have been put outside in situe around the location I chose, to be found by any passers by and hopefully to improve their walks. There will be a way for them to get in touch with me on the works for anyone who wishes to do so. It will also be interesting to see the work degrade due to the weather for the duration of the exhibition before retrieval.

In conclusion I have enjoyed working as a team with the other members of the group to organise this exhibition. There were certainly areas I could have done better in this regard, I probably didn’t contribute to the organisation as much as the other members did through things like creating the social media pages and the budget for example, which I had no part in. Regardless it was a great learning experience and one that was very beneficial to me. The work was not as successful as it could have been for a few reasons, one being that it lacked refinement, particularly the collage I would do differently if given another chance by being more abstract and removing unnecessary details that distract from the shapes of the landscape. The second piece, done in oil bar I would make to have more variety in tones on the river bank, as it stands they all look like one block of the same tone which is not accurate. In putting the pieces outside they all ended up damaged by the rain, which was something I expected and welcomed. I think it adds the element of time to the series, which is very fitting of a series about a river. It has been very interesting to watch them change with the weather as they age. My exhibition unfortunately received no feedback from the public, which is something I will need to consider closely if I were to do this project again. I would need to make clearer the ways viewers can get involved themselves. This has been a very useful learning experience, and I am not unhappy with the work I produced. However there are improvements to be made in regards to public engagement if that is ever an important part of any future exhibitions.