The project to portray a Penwith Hedge in art, through the four seasons, began a year ago. We two artists, Sara Bevan and Amanda Richardson, are both passionate about the landscapes of the far west of Cornwall. We have lived and worked here for most of our lives. Cornish Hedges are an integral part of our art. Both of us saw the project advertised by Penwith Landscape Partnership, and decided to apply together, as a collaboration. We thought this would be fun. Artists' working lives are usually solitary, but during this project we have walked through the fields together, said hello to the bullocks through all seasons, watched the sun setting over The Land's End. We have discussed ideas and techniques. We kept a look out for the changes of weather, and for flowers coming and going. It has been good to work together.
The plan was always for us to create separate artworks. Our art differs from each other. Sara's paintings use wide sweeps of pigment in free flowing, abstracted movements across the paper. She also works in different forms of print, all monotypes, which means there is only ever one of that print. The monochrome prints are in black and white and only go through the press once. With Sara's botanical prints she colours and patterns the paper before using pressed flowers as a mask with several layers of ink. She has created a diverse collection of art for the exhibition, giving real insight into the hedges of Penwith.
Amanda works in textile collage, using richly textured, light reflective fabrics, all of which she has hand dyed and patterned to convey the details of her subject. The massive forms of granite boulders are patterned with lichens. The Spring hedge is filled with bold colours of bluebells, campion together with the delicate tracery of cowparsley. Amanda is in essence a painter in textiles, combining a lifetimes experience in both disciplines in complex artworks that take many weeks to create and encompass both the landscape and its intricate details.
If summing up a common theme with all our work for this exhibition, it is an elegance of form and movement. Each piece guides the viewer through, exploring the landscape, unhurried but forever curious, a continuous adventure in art. I hope you will visit the exhibition at the Miners' Chapel in St Just and explore, as we have done, this richly fascinating landscape in Penwith.
The project to portray a Penwith Hedge in art, through the four seasons, began a year ago. We two artists, Sara Bevan and Amanda Richardson, are both passionate about the landscapes of the far west of Cornwall. We have lived and worked here for most of our lives. Cornish Hedges are an integral part of our art.
We were commissioned by Penwith Landscape Partnership in late Autumn and so began to look at the hedge when it was thick with blackberries, with the leaves turning brilliant shades of red and yellow, and fog wrapping around the cliffs beyond.
Winter came and gorse lit up Penwith with rich yellow. Our hedge is near the Land's End, and this far into the gales, gorse is the last tree standing and its gnarled trunks top the hedges.
Spring in all of Cornwall is our time of abundance and glory. Our hedges are linear gardens of wildflowers along all the field margins and roads.
Now we are in a hot, dry summer and the landscape has turned to silver and gold of swaying grasses, interspersed with royal purple flowers of knapweed. We have studied each season of our hedge and translated it into art.
If summing up a common theme with all our work for this exhibition, it is an elegance of form and movement. Each piece guides the viewer through, exploring the landscape, unhurried but forever curious, a continuous adventure in art. I hope you will visit the exhibition at the Miners' Chapel in St Just and explore, as we have done, this richly fascinating landscape in Penwith.
Amanda Richardson:
Website: https://amandarichardsonartist.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AmandaRichardsonArtist
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/amandarichardsonartist/
Sara Bevan
Website: http://sarabevanartist.co.uk/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sarabevanartist.co.uk
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bevan4849/
