This was an interesting exhibition featuring two very different artists. Tom Voyce has a masters degree and won Landscape Artist of the Year. Grace Ellen is self taught. I had high expectations given the title that I would really be able to see the differences between the places and left feeling rather dissatisfied. While Grace's Surrey pictures were very recognisable I was less convinced that her seascapes were particularly recognisable as being Cornish, they could have been many other places. Tom's work seemed to use the same palette throughout making England indistinguishable from Australia until you looked very deeply at exactly what was in the images, even then I'm not sure I would be able to place the Australian ones as being from there.
Tom's work features a very distinctive palette which made it hard for me to really see much difference between the England and Australia pictures so I started wondering how well they really conveyed the differences in the places. His work is full of movement and layering which makes the images lively. The hints of red in them all rather annoyed me as it felt rather gimmicky - viewed all together they all look startlingly similar so they don't really seem to convey a particular sense of place at all, more a sense of his style. This just isn't the type of painting that appeals to me as a buyer so maybe that's why I feel very critical of it. Given the accolades Tom has achieved it clearly appeals to a lot of other people which just goes to show that subjective nature of art! I was disappointed as I think I'd hoped to find some answers to the question of how does an artist convey a sense of place and I didn't feel like I discovered anything here. I thought his exploration of light and shadow and at buildings within the landscape was fascinating as well as the perspective lines he uses with the enormous foreground leading into a much smaller and distant subject within the image. I'm just not sure that I felt he was really connected to any of the places within the images.
Much of Grace's work is rather large in scale, I think several of the paintings would have looked better as smaller pieces. They were undoubtedly recognisable as Surrey though which was pleasing. The colours, views and seasons definitely felt very familiar to me as a Surrey resident. I thought some of the paintings featuring water were stronger than the large aerial views over the landscape, and a couple of river scenes seemed to be missing and deep contrasts between the dark and light. I could tell she likes the impressionists in the looser watery ones whereas the larger green ones looked to me as though they were painted from a photograph (which they all were, but I dislike a painting that looks like a copy of a photograph, I could just look at the photograph!) and they were very 'tight', I prefer the looser ones with some impasto reflections and a sense of movement, they better convey the feeling of being in that place to me.
Her seascapes of Cornwall are successful as a group of nice paintings but I didn't think they were particularly Cornish, admittedly I'm not nearly as well acquainted with Cornwall as I am with Surrey, but I felt these could have been any beach. I wonder whether it's something to do with the light or the palette, while the Surrey colours and light was well done I'm not sure that the Cornish ones got that same sense of light that Cornwall is so famous for. I want huge dramatic seas and lot of rocks from Cornish beaches, these were lovely as beach paintings, but again, I was missing that real sense of what it was like to stand there and experience that beach, they're a bit too... 'nice'.
Exhibition text:
Grace Ellen
I'm most drawn to landscapes which allow for interesting light within the painting, which is why water features so heavily in my work. Where there is water, you will have contrast, reflection and movement. I love Surrey, Cornwall & Devon as I'm very familiar with these areas. I'm very nostalgic and love to revisit places I went to as a child, seeing them through the 'artist' lens. My emotional response to nature is very sensory - I feel most calm and content when I am outdoors, and I hope this tranquillity comes through in my work. I like my viewer to feel as though they could walk into the painting and share my experience, I rarely use figures in my paintings as I want then to have an element of escapism. If they are present, they will be there for a reason - to create a narrative, perhaps a shared quiet enjoyment of the landscape or simply to highlight the scale in a scene.
How much difference does the weather and time of year make?
The weather makes a huge difference. I'm very drawn to images with lots of contrasting light and colour so I really need the sunlight during the photography stage. I'm also drawn to interesting clouds / sunsets / sunrises and getting the right conditions to line up can be difficult. I will often stand and wait patiently for the sun the break through a clearing in the sky. In terms of the seasons, I enjoy each for their different qualities, I keep note of places to revisit at different times. I'm drawn to specific plants such as gorse and sea thrift and time my visits to Cornwall to catch these at their best. Likewise, I note down tree species to work out where to find the richest colours in Autumn and Winter.
Do you start work immediately you get to a place or do you just absorb the atmosphere first? Do you takes photos or make sketches?
I love being able to go on a walk with my camera and fully immerse myself in the landscape, this is part of the reason I prefer to paint in my studio as my time in the landscape is precious and l'm too excited to stand and paint in the same spot when I could be finding out what's around the next corner. I take hundreds of images and appreciate the environment in lots of detail and from every angle. I will climb trees and use make-shift steppingstones to get the right composition if need be! When I sit down to edit, I just pick out one or two which best capture my experience.
Where would you most like to visit that you haven't yet been to?
I am very much looking to plan a trip to the west of Scotland and the Hebrides. It looks so dramatic and remote, and it would be a welcome challenge to paint a moodier collection!
Have you been inspired by any particular landscape artists?
I am very much inspired by the French impressionists, who were equally as obsessed with prioritising the light in their paintings! And even earlier than this, the mindset and approach taken by Courbet is inspiring. He saw painting as a way of documenting the world as it was and, on a more superficial level, he was very good at painting trees!
Grace Ellen is a self-taught, professional artist based in Surrey. Born in 1993, Grace spent her childhood years walking in the Surrey Hills and visiting Cornwall and the Lake District. This inspired her love of the outdoors and led to her choosing to study Animal Behaviour and Ecology at the University of Exeter. Learning about the conservation of such places, and the need for their protection, motivated Grace to start painting them and celebrating their natural beauty. Grace continues to draw inspiration from the great diversity seen in British nature and wildlife. Each painting is truly unique and a snapshot of her experience at each location and of the particular day she visited. Grace's style sits where the realistic meets the romanticised. Her use of texture mediums, sprays and impasto mark-making bring the landscapes to life on the canvas, and each piece is a joyful celebration of nature.
Recent prizes include the visitor's choice awards at both Bath Art Fair and Surrey Contemporary Art Fair. She was also voted as a finalist for the 'Surrey Artist of the Year' competition based on her solo show Light and Land.
Tom Voyce
I have always had a desire to travel, so to be able to combine this with my love of depicting place in my work has always been my ambition. Because good light is so important to me, it is not always easy to find this in the UK! I find the light in different countries around the world very inspiring - California for example, has the most wonderful light that creates exciting compositions.
Can you describe your emotional reaction to places?
I have always found cast shadows interesting in images and in life. How they can create certain moods within a composition. I find myself staring at a shape made on the side of a wall on a summer evening, being intrigued at how the brickwork lights up or how the colours within the shadows intersect a road. I think beauty in a landscape or interior can be found anywhere - often in the most mundane of places that people often miss. I am interested in finding these.
How much difference does the time of year and the weather make?
Light changes throughout different seasons. Clear, sunlit days are preferable for me as they provide great shadows and warm light. Summer or Autumn are best for this, but I've also produced artworks in the winter with little or no light that I still feel captures a sense of place. Timing is more important - as the long cast shadows appear in the morning or evening. Midday in the summer means less shadow, and as a result less contrast.
Do you start work immediately you get to a place, or do you like to absorb the atmosphere first?
I think it's always a good idea to try and absorb the atmosphere in a place, but this isn't always possible if you are on a time limit. I work from sketches made on location, and I keep a small travel sketchbook with me so I can quickly work when I see a composition of interest and work things out in the studio later. If these are fleeting moments viewed from a car or train for example, I will take a photograph if I am unable to sketch. This isn't ideal as the composition is fixed, but I still capture something that I can work on. In some cases, I will combine several images of a place into one composition - so I am not always faithful to an exact representation of a building or view as I am more interested in it being a sense of place as opposed to an exact copy of it.
Have you been inspired by any particular landscape artists?
I have been influenced by many artists. Previously, I was infatuated with the work of Edward Hopper, and how his compositions explored light and shadow so cleverly to create powerful, cinematic scenes that radiated mood and unease. I found them beautiful, but I can see how some people find them almost haunting and remote. Other American artists such as Wayne Thiebaud and Ben Aronson have also influenced my practice as has my tutor at art school, June Forster. Richard Diebenkorn, however, was the one who I feel took my work to new levels. His 'Cityscape' series has proven to be enormously significant in my practice and continues to be so now.
Would you consider including human figures in your work? What's the reason for your answer?
I often get asked this question. I feel that figures in my landscapes or interiors wouldn't add anything to my compositions, in fact I think they would take away from them. I am not sure why this is. Adding figures to my studies will change them in some way, perhaps adding a narrative that does not exist. Either way, it is not something that I am planning to do at this time, but who knows in the future!
Tom Voyce (born 1989) is an artist and art teacher currently based in the East Midlands. Trained in Fine Art at Aberystwyth University in Wales, Tom gained his bachelor's degree in 2011, specialising in drawing and painting. He completed a Master's degree shortly afterwards allowing him to refine his practice while working and teaching in higher education. This included a teaching visit to China in 2014. In 2017 Tom entered the Sky Arts Landscape Artist of the Year competition, where his powerful and distinctive landscapes thrilled the judges. He went on to win the competition and claim the prize of a £10.000 commission from the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, London to paint the view from Noel Coward's home in Jamaica. Since then Tom has continued to further his own practice through still life, interiors and other semi abstract landscapes that are fundamental to his work.
In late 2018 he embarked on a body of work inspired by his favourite subject matter; places of transit. He has also undertaken a number of residencies, demonstrations and talks in Canada, New Zealand and Australia. Tom combines his own practice with a role as Artist in Residence at Repton School.