Kit Glaisyer - Landscapes

by Anthony Head

When I first saw the recent "Marshwood Vale" paintings by Kit Glaisyer I was reminded of the scene in "Being John Malkovich" where someone discovers a secret door into the actors head, falls in, and sees the world through his eyes. Looking at these paintings, it feels like the west Dorset landscape literally spreads out beneath your feet, and it is an intense and a sublime experience that creates a heightened sense of presence. Furthermore, this highly subjective realism isn't achieved by the usual photo-real techniques, but by Glaisyer patiently working on each painting for several months, delicately balancing the space, composing the light, and building up glazes of colour until the painting becomes both "evocative of the memory and convincing of the place."

These landscapes are basically ambitious recreations of the artists feelings for the countryside, his memories of growing up in north Dorset and his desire to communicate this experience to others. They are intensely engaging works with a powerful emotional undertone. Glaisyer often describes himself as an 'unrequited film-maker' and it helps to imagine him like the Director of an epic film, commanding the elements to do justice to his relationship with the landscape.

(Click on thumbnails to see larger images)

Marshwood Clouds, Moody Marshwood and Mistry Marshwood.

This is an artist who is helping to redefine and reinvigorate the traditional landscape genre by returning to the historic roots of the tradition and eloquently renewing it with an earnest and slightly theatrical sensibility. On the one hand he is obviously continuing the romantic tradition from the 16th Century Dutch landscape painters, through Casper David Friedrich, to Turner, Constable, and onto the American Hudson River School; but his work also evokes epic landscapes from contemporary cinema like "The Lord of the Rings" and "Donnie Darko", as well as Japanese animation like "Spirited Away" and "Howl's Moving Castle"; and even the vividly imagined worlds of English literature evoked by Watership Down, The Wind in the Willows, and the Hobbit.

 

Landscape Study, Blackmore Vale and Homestead.

Glaisyer grew up in north Dorset and initially learnt to paint water-colour landscapes on walks with his father. He continued to explore landscape subjects over the years, and when he moved to London in the 90's he was often drawn back to paint the Blackmore Vale and the north Dorset hills and valleys where he grew up. In 1998 he moved back to Dorset, this time to the coastal town of Bridport and within a few years had re-dedicated himself to exploring his life-long relationship with the landscape.

 

Bride Valley Sunset, Bride Valley Fields and Misty Bride Valley.

Glaisyer started this current landscape series in 2004 with three interpretations of a view across the Bride Valley - just to the east of Bridport. This process of working in series echoes the habits of artists such as Paul Cezanne and Claude Monet who returned to their subjects again and again. For Glaisyer it is also about finding an equivalent to the familiarity with the landscape that he grew up in, and in developing a deeper understanding of the 'lie of the land' based on continuous observation.

 

Study #1, Study #2 and Path on Allington Hill.

In 2007 Glaisyer spent several months working on his next work - "Path on Allington Hill". Working half on location with 'plein air' painting and half in the studio while referring to sketches and photographic materials, Glaisyer gradually 'feels' his way into the painting, as the cumulative time spent on the work begins to inform the character of the subject. This growing familiarity creates an intimate portrait of a profoundly subjective experience of nature.

 

Marshwood Sunset, Litton Cheney Moonscape and Marshwood Sunburst.

By 2008 Glaisyer was ready to tackle a larger, more complex landscape, and this is when he started working on the "Marshwood Vale" series of views from Allington Hill, in Bridport - which looks north towards an undulating line of three hills along the horizon. The character of each of these paintings changes according to the time and seasons. So we have an optically complex work such as "Marshwood Clouds" - with it's heighened sense of drama, which then contrasts with the the relative calm of "Marshwood Haze" and then leads us to the brooding anticipation of "Moody Marshwood".

You can view a selection of Kit Glaisyer's recent landscape paintings during the November Open Studios event that takes place between Sat 14 to Sun 22 November 2009. Keep an eye on the www.bridport.org for more information, and look out for a guide to the event in shops and galleries across Bridport in November.