Eric William Ravilious (1903 – 1942) was an English painter, designer, book illustrator and wood engraver. He grew up in East Sussex, andat the Royal College of Art (1922–5) was taught by Paul Nash and became close friends with Edward Bawden. In 1939 he officially served as a war artist, and died when the aircraft he was in was lost off Iceland.
He is particularly known for his watercolours of the South Downs, empty rooms and war paintings. His use of watercolour and limited muted palette to capture light, often overlaid by crayon lines, has a beautiful shimmering quality. He uses exaggerated perspectives, unusual viewpoints and abstract shapes to create drama, suspense and movement. The effect is often haunting – reflecting a mix of nostalgia and foreboding in the world destroyed by the war.
Sources:
CONSTABLE, F. & SIMON, S. 2003. The England of Eric Ravillious, Surrey, UK, Lund Humphrey.
His use of two point perspective – slightly off – creates a feeling of claustrophobia, uncertainty and unease. The eye goes first towards the bed, strangely reflected in the ceiling of a windowless room. But then is taken down the empty corridor that appears to go upwards to nowhere and round a corner to the light. Is this an escape? Or a dead-end to nowhere? Or worse?
Hambling, M. 2009. You Are the Sea, Great Britain, Lux Books.
Hambling, M. 2010. The Aldeburgh Scallop, Suffolk, Full Circle Editions.
Hambling, M. 2010. The Sea, Salford Quays, Lowry Press.
Maggi Hambling is a British painter, sculptor and printmaker. Born in Suffolk, she has a particular link with Aldeburgh through her Waves paintings and prints – evocative of the ways the North Sea has ravaged the coast. Her recent work has had a much more political stance, for example in War and Requiem, and also in Edge the exhibition that was showing in Aldeburgh Peter Peers Gallery at the beginning of my visit for Project 4.2 ‘Aldeburgh Diary’.
Wave paintings
The North Sea, often like a raging beast, is eating away and changing the shoreline forever. As I get older, I identify with the shifting shingle, as time, like the sea, enforces an inevitable erosion. But this raging beast is as demanding as a lover and I am still seduced and challenged. (2010 The Sea p18)
“As the waves of the North Sea voraciously consume our coast, these new paintings respond to the energy of their action as they break. This sea, the widest of mouths, roaring or laughing, is always seductive. Life and death mysteriously co-exist in the timeless rhythm of the waves.” Maggi Hambling, 2010 Wave website Fitzwilliam Museum
I am the shifting shingle, you approach with stealth, then the dark rooms of your curves, I am tossed, lost, displaced, with greedy lovers’ tongues and lips, you suck in and in again. we rise together, we rise together, then float safe on liquid breasts until the dance begins again and you thrust deep and my resistance is low, dissolve, dissolve. no defence against your relentless advance. I am but a ghost of the shore, disappeared in you. (2009 You Are the Sea text)
Edge
This exhibition is more political than much of her earlier work on the sea, dealing with the refugee crisis, battle for Aleppo and global warming.
It is called Edge because I feel we are ‘on the edge’. There is a fragility to our existence – both ours and the planet and these works attempt to address that and strike up a dialogue with whoever is looking at them.
The Edge paintings are large, with characteristic dramatic swirls of texture, that then on further looking show fine detail – people, remains of buildings and boats caught up in the chaos. The global warming paintings have a lot of gold, echoing renaissance paintings – but gold is now a reference to greed.
Hambling also designed the controversial Scallop sculpture on the beach at Aldeburgh that references the life and work of Benjamin Britten whose opera Peter Grimes was based on Aldeburgh. Part of the controversy comes from continuing homophobia of protesters.
The words read:
I hear those voices that will not be drowned
This first video below begins with very atmospheric photography of the Scallop and sea and sky in Aldeburgh to Benjamin Britten’s Four Sea Interludes from Peter Grimes opera – then unfortunately it descends into farce.
This second video has film of Maggi Hambling sketching to the Storm section from Peter Grimes opera.
