Petleys

The directors and staff of Petleys take great pleasure in inviting you to come and have a glass of champagne with us to celebrate Edward Beale's preview party on Tuesday the 5th of October, 2010 from 6.30 to 8.30pm for his latest exhibition.

This exhibition shows how landscape is a powerful spur to the creative imagination. In the same way as writing was once seen as a magical process of transferring images from mind to mind there is something inexplicable and fascinating about the way a well-executed painting can affect us. There are many different ideas about which qualities are essential to a painting as there are so many views about what constitutes good art. But when we stand in front of a painting we find there are aspects to it that defy description. In some mysterious way a painting can deliver a visual bolt of energy and feeling. Edward's paintings are informed by the past, by a tradition, but they are also about an experience of now. We can witness the results of an aesthetic journey in which the artist has developed ways of conveying his visual experience. Such a journey has a more profound significance than the concerns of fashion. Instead the artist seeks to translate onto canvas the visual excitement he feels and all other considerations fade into irrelevance. To accomplish some sort of match between the object, the idea and the painting involves a period of contemplative concentration in which every bit of accumulated knowledge and experience must be employed. The process of making a painting is very often a mixture of frustration and pleasure but at the end of it there can be something new and lasting to show. What you see in these paintings is the result of a process of selection and suggestion that translates what the artist sees into a vibrant two dimensional surface. It is always surprising to feel the joy and delight that a painting can induce. Such a response intensifies with knowledge but can be experienced by anyone. It is brought about by a special alchemy that draws the viewer into the artist's experience. A painting takes on its own life and is at the same time a testament of a particular place at a particular time. While a painting is more than a record it is the desire to record that gives it tension. Painting on the spot (even with discomforts such as being bitten by flies, scorched by the sun, frozen by the cold, blown about by the wind) is an important aspect of Edward's work. This exhibition includes works made in new places and also those where familiarity has deepened his understanding. The "Bridge over the Dordogne at Castillon" was made in the strong light of October in south west France. The road above was busy with the traffic of a market town while the river below carried the occasional swan or rowing boat. Few were aware of the artist working on a grassy patch in the shade of the bridge like a silent witness. The wide wilderness in "Stornoway from the Pentlands Road" shows one of the most secret and remote places. While it is often blustery and wet, here it is shown in sunshine and the sky has made the peaty lochs a rich, deep blue. A derelict stone cottage is nearly camouflaged in the distance and, caught by the light of the sun, are three wind turbines. Castile y Leon in central Spain has a policy of access to rough trails across farmland with wide margins which encourages wildlife to flourish and makes it possible to find many vantage points from which to paint. In early summer the cornfields were already ripening and poppies were springing up around their edges. The walls and spires of Segovia are visible for miles across fields. Signs of modernity like motorways and out of town shopping are assimilated into traditional ways of life. A mountain range is named after the imagined outline of a woman's reclining form. This can be seen in "La Mujer Muerta from meadows, Castile". A Hebridean echo of this is seen in "Mountains of Harris with Cailleach na Mointich" which also depicts an imagined female outline. These legends reveal an ancient continuity of cultures intimately connected to the landscape but noticed and painted by a contemporary artist. Layers of meaning in a painting are often difficult or impossible to describe in words especially when there is no overt narrative. Observational painting is often connected with concerns such as the pattern of a line of trees, or a shape overlapping or fitting with another, or the way colours react with one another, or the way a tone can be cool in a hot landscape, or how one edge or plane meets another. They add up to countless decisions on how best to render the outside world with paint on a surface. Edward's work shows that while the subject is clearly important to a painting, just as important is the way the paint is applied. The viewer can share in the artist's pleasure in the paint itself as much as in the subject. When you look at one of Edward's paintings you can see the frankness of his approach in the way the painted marks remain visible. The eye is beguiled into seeing the object at the same time as noticing the paint itself. There is art in the construction of the painting as well as in the choice of the subject. Pleasure in the way the paint has been applied can be felt as much in still-life studies like "Still life with aubergines", or "Yellow flowers in a decorated vase", as in the monumental landscapes like "Vineyard at Vives", or "Cherry orchard on hillside near Ceret". The tactile quality of the impasto paint is almost three dimensional and conveys a strong sense of presence and sensuousness. Edward says that "… the experience of painting different types of landscape opens up new possibilities. I find that it even affects how I paint a life model or a still-life back in the studio."

Claire Edwards M.A. (Phil) August 2010

Click here for more information about this exhibition  
Click here to view the catalogue online
Click here for more information about the Artist
Follow us on twitter! 

The directors and staff of Petleys take great pleasure in inviting you to come and have a glass of champagne with us to celebrate Yuri Krotov's preview party on Tuesday the 21st of September, 2010 from 6.30 to 8.30pm.

- Titania Veda, 2010