Elinor Rathbone - BA (Hons) Fine Art
To paint is a constant battle between the painter and the canvas, caught in a cycle of push and pull. With each bold brushstroke, I disrupt the expected and known. As a result, landscapes emerge and dissolve with the scraping, dragging and layering of the paint, echoing nature's grandeur and geography. Impasto paint builds texture alluding to mountains or trees, whilst smooth, blended transitional tones form areas of light and depth. Amongst the bold gestural marks and the layering of paint, the landscape becomes placeless: where reality is reimagined. It does not answer to any specific place, but instead embodies the wonder, passion and sublimity of nature. The act of looking becomes important as the painting slowly unravels, revealing nature's beautiful chaos, narrowed down to a single large canvas.
