Title

Tracing the land as it bends, breaks and breathes painting

Tracing the land as it bends, breaks and breathes
Oil on paper, 2025
210 × 297 mm

This painting was exhibited at Ortus as part of The Journey to This Wild Achingly Beautiful Place. Broad gestures, wistful landscapes and pensive figures reveal a return to a creative process that is hands-on, tactile, individual and exploratory.

The painting is part of a series I made on the Isle of Man, returning to drawing and painting after a long period of illness. The landscapes are the ones I grew up in: wild, wind-shaped trees, open highlands, Celtic stones and the colours of the island that stay with me no matter where I go.

This painting looks across the west coast of the Isle of Man towards the Calf of Man. An abstracted figure sits within the landscape alongside a Celtic cross, bringing together the human body, place, memory and the history held within the land.

I was drawn to the deeper, richer tones in this landscape and to the way the land seems to shift and move beneath the surface. The marks became a way of tracing the landscape rather than simply representing it. Following its bends, breaks and rhythms. The figure is not separate from the landscape, but seems to emerge from it and become part of it.

There is something in this work about the relationship between the physical body and the land: both can carry histories, marks and traces of what they have endured. Through the process of painting, I found myself responding intuitively to those connections, allowing the landscape and the figure to become intertwined.

These artworks were developed in collaboration with Bethlem Gallery for The Journey to This Wild Achingly Beautiful Place. As part of that relationship, 20% of the proceeds from this work will be donated to Bethlem Gallery, supporting its work with artists and its commitment to creating space for art, mental health and lived experience.