Anne James views some interesting pieces displayed at Churchill Hospital
Painters Jonathan Moss and Claudia Figueiredo are showing 41 pieces of their work at the Churchill Hospital. They describe their work as ‘primarily landscape’ and their approach as coming ‘from a tangent’.
Moss’s pieces are large and their apparent simplicity masks both the complex nature of the techniques he employs and the way he produces contemplative and beautiful images by reworking their dark origins. Rohmer IV exemplifies this. It is part of a series that grew from video footage filmed by French filmmaker Eric Rohmer on a concentration camp. The finished picture overpowers its dark origins to become a piece with a depth, tranquillity and spirituality that transcends its cruel origins. Working in oil on canvas, he builds each piece up layer by layer, rubbing down between layers, to create a patina comprised of lighter and darker blocks of colour and thicker and thinner layers of paint. This process can take up to six months. The pieces then culminate quickly as Moss drips paint or turpentine to create close-knit vertical striations. Once the reach of each drip is right and the viscosity is sufficient he lays each piece flat to dry.
Figueiredo’s work is smaller, each piece has been painted on sturdy birch–ply. All are highly decorative and at times outright quirky: as in her Mi Mesa, (My Table) series in which she has used découpage to translate colourful disposal Mexican oilcloths into pieces in which apples and other fruits are set against gentle abstract backgrounds.
In Teasels, she captures the winter mood of Warneford Meadow by setting strong images of four seed-heads against a clear turquoise blue sky.
Paintscapes: Windows of Escape framed by Hospital Life
Churchill Hospital, South Street
Until March 8
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