Landscape Reinventions

“As I looked at the extraordinary objects I was passing, I thought of ‘the little world’ which men carry about inside their heads. …However strange and unexpected the prospect before our eyes, it never seems to take us wholly by surprise; there is an echo within ourselves answering each new impression. Either we must already have seen something resembling it elsewhere, or else our brains are prepared in advance with every possible combination of shapes and forms.”

Eugene Delacroix

September 11^th 1855

This observation taken from Delacroix’s journal, whilst he was travelling by coach in Limousin, resonates with my own perception of landscape. I am aware that I have very specific aesthetic frameworks, or concepts of landscape, stored in my mind. It is only when the real world aligns itself to this mental image that I am motivated to represent it. I am interested in the relationship between this internal world and the external world. How much is the observation of one influenced by the other? Where do these ‘patterns’ originate, and if they are unique to me then why do they resonate with others?

This exhibition, Landscape Reinventions represent aninvestigation into the‘little world’ I carry about in my head. In this series I have endeavoured to liberate my paintings from the expectation that they represent a particular place. Although they are based on observations of real places, what is represented is entirely constructed.

I believe the process of painting should be one of constant enquiry. It matters more ‘how’a thing is represented, than ‘what’ is represented. It puts more emphasis on the act of painting itself, the poetry of execution, the emotional power of the medium.

Philip Wolfhagen