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In 2016 a Stroke was a life changing moment. Forty-one years as an Art Teacher ended. The drawings that were produced, pre-stroke and post-stroke, were realised in sketchbooks and canvases, drawing particularly on my reflective state over the last 5 years, contributed to my recovery. A process of re-learning and re-discovery for my surroundings, my Plymouth colours, mixed possibly with my emotional state.
My drawing and painting has always been linked together, I don't see drawing and painting as separate activities there is a connection, I make marks and use the phenomenon of the visual elements. Lines, shapes, marks, tones, light and shadow, as my intellectual property, unique to how observations and decisions are made, problems are resolved and the history of the mark making and the brushstrokes employed, everything has a deliberate action and intent. Even random splashes and drips. |
Dartmoor to the City is an ongoing visual project, and possibly the source of a string of connected concepts in my work. Time, history and geography, how the natural and built environment, currently Plymouth, has evolved on Devonian Limestone which originates over 300,000 years ago. The stone has been quarried and used to create many of the surviving historic buildings of Plymouth. So the fabric of the City is important, as is the fabric of the land that surrounds us with shapes and forms created by the rivers Plym and Tamar.
Walking through the suburbs of Plymouth everything leads to the sea, or walking out of the city everything leads to Dartmoor. The palette attempts to orchestrate the tones of the colours, blue greys, purples, greens, ochres and more greys. The sedimentation of the pigments mix and spread freely with a brush stroke making a trail or mark, as they dry they revert back to states which produce dramatic colour combinations, almost like the Devonian Limestone in the Royal William Yard, which was once a sedimentary liquid layer before harding to stone.
All the seascape pieces currently relate to Plymouth Sound. These pieces date from a constant period of observation and experience, sketchbooking, drawing and photographing from different vantage points, Jennycliffe, Staddiscombe, The Hoe, Mount Batten and Mount Edgecumbe.
The cityscapes are based on Hyde Park Road. These pieces date from a period of observation and experience from early morning walks to get a newspaper. The sketchbooks date from 2014. The walk became significant in 2016/17 after Stroke, learning to walk. Collage is a feature of these paintings allowing elements to be embedded on the surface like fossils in stone. A mix of visual elements, image, word or historic memories, a hidden figurative element, a sign that life goes on.
Richard Sunderland
2021
Photograph by Eliot Siegel
http://www.eliotsiegelportraits.com
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Exhibitions 2020 Plymouth Society of Artists - Artmill Gallery Plymouth - July to September 21 Group of Artists - Birdwood House October / November Exhibitions 2019 On My Own - Theatre Royal Plymouth - Private View February 8th. February 8th.to March 31st. 21 Group of Artists - Artmill Gallery Plymouth 29th March - 27th April. Plymouth Society of Artists - Theatre Royal Plymouth 1st.July - 14th September. Signpost 8 - Looking Forward - Cube 3 Gallery Plymouth University Portland Square Building 8th - 28th July. Co-Curator Drawn to the Valley Open Studio - Artmill 27th-29th.August. Rhizome CE 2019 - Cube 3 Gallery Plymouth University Portland Square Building 28th. October - 30th. November 21 Group of Artists - Birdwood House 23rd - 30th. November. Conferences/ Workshops Devon Art Teachers Conference Torre Abbey 2019 Exhibitions 2018 21 Group of Artists - Theatre Royal Plymouth April Signpost 7 Cube 3 Gallery Plymouth University Portland Square Building 8th - 28th July. Co-Curator Two Richards - Take Two at the Artmill Gallery Plymouth September. 21 Group of Artists - Birdwood House, Totnes November Rhizome CE 2018 Cube 3 Gallery Plymouth University, Portland Square Building November Exhibition 2021 21 Group of Artists - Limekiln Gallery, March 21 Group of Artists - Penwith Gallery Penwith, September 21 Group of Artists - Artizan Gallery Torbay, September DOS. 21 Group of Artists - Birdwood House Totnes, November |
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