24 Hours and Counting!
In her last guest blog for Quint this week in advance of her solo exhibition, artist/illustrator and Quint Collective member, MJ Hodge talks about the landscapes that inspire her dream-like 'reverse glass' painting.
Her solo exhibition will be at Conway Hall, London click here for details on their site
18th - 24th April 2015
The Land: Looking Glass Landscapes
In
the early days of the Croatian Naive the artists were all
peasant-painters. Poor farmers tilling the soil for their families’
survival, encouraged to paint the hardship of their daily lives as a
way of showing the world the harsh reality of their existence through
a self-taught art. As a result, the early paintings of the tradition
are bleak: dour in colour, depressing in content, forceful in
representing deprivation, oppression, hopelessness and death.
Such
art is powerful, but it can be hard on a soul that longs for more.
And so, when I look at the evolution of the Croatian Naive I can see
how those painters, first encouraged to paint ‘what they saw,’
might begin to paint the world in more expressive ways - interpreting
it through memory and with longing. Until they were no longer
painting the hard winters outside of their windows only, but the
blossom filled springs that haunted their dreams.
Leading,
over time, to the land and landscapes which had been backgrounds to
the ploughs, peasants and drama of earlier paintings, taking on
greater prominence and evolving into interpreted and imagined
landscapes that owed more to the artist’s imagination than to the
view outside their door.
At
the time I was first introduced to the Croatian Naive, I knew nothing
of this however. All I knew was that in encountering Ivica’s bird
and butterfly landscapes for the first time I felt the possibilities
of landscape painting like I’d never felt them before. From being
an illustrator of animals and figures, I felt for the first time the
deep pull of a tree’s roots and the onward draw of painting the far
horizon. Perhaps it was the whimsy of the wings that spoke to me, or
perhaps it was the sorrow in the bird’s eye - but the need to
explore the landscapes that mean the most to me through spiral,
flower, fine detail, colour, totem and stretching sky has influenced
my work ever since.
In
addition, Ivica’s own garden and his tending of that garden have
given me a greater insight into the practical needs of the
peasant-painters who balanced their painting lives with seasonal
tasks. To paraphrase Ivica when I asked why he did so little painting
in the summer, ‘I have been in the garden digging because it needs
to be done and the sun is warm. The paintings will wait.’ Words
which continue to send me out into the garden every spring and
summer, to practice patience and feed my soul in a different way.
And
every year, this seasonal shift reminds me that while my painted
landscapes may owe more to my imagination than the view outside my
window, it is only by regularly walking into the land outside my door
and by digging my fingers into the warm earth under a summer sun that
I am kept rich in the inspiration needed to paint my glass bright all
the winter long.
creativeCroatia
-
bringing
contemporary Croatia to London in 2015
No comments:
Post a Comment