The Landscape Series - Nicholas James - Bog

The Landscape Series was developed in two phases: from February 2002 to June2003, completed in February 2006. The thirty sets comprised quantities of twenty to one hundred 1' square panels. The panels were worked on flat, with emulsion paint poured and divided in swept mounds and gullies using cardboard strips cut from cartons. They were then laid out on an old framed 6' x 3' piece which also served as a container for pools of colour washed over the textured surface. Various factors steered the series development: thoughts about the load-bearing pressures on a place, tracks and crossing points, airflow, water, spaces and intervals, the nature of settlement in the land. Offset corners from the stacking cubes stand for a house and occasional rounds for a moon. The identity of a place was achieved not by literal description but as an equivalent found by coincidence in the passage of an abstract process. NP James Contents 1. The Cornish Series: 100 panel paintings 03/2002 Draws on the landscape and coastline of the south west peninsula, from Padstow and Bude in the North to Lamorna and Madron in the West. 2. The Gloucester Series: 80 panel paintings 04/2002 Ranges from the Cotswolds in the East to Bristol in the South, and to the West the Vale of Berkeley and Forest of Dean near Wales. 3. The Oxford Series: 90 panel paintings 05/2002 4. The York Series: 100 panel paintings 05/2002 Dressed in vibrant harmonies of slate blue, red, black, grey and green, the small-scale studies evoke the scatter of settlements, travellers' routes, landmarks and crossing points, that span South and North Yorkshire. 5. The Santa Monica Series: 100 panel paintings 06/2002 The diverse and vibrant Californian landscape from Otay and San Diego in the south to Scott Bar and Smith River on the northern border. 6. The Málaga Series: 80 panel paintings 08/2002 Colourways of ochre, emerald, lapis lazuli, red and black, are informed by the patterns of ancient Moorish culture which underpin the traditions of Granada and Málaga in southern Spain. 7. The Lodore Series: 100 panel paintings 09/2002 One hundred panel paintings evoke the dramatic settings of Cumbria and the Lake District. 8. The Amberley Series: 80 panel paintings 10/2002 The intimate scenery of West Sussex, an area the artist has worked from since 1967. 9. The Manaton Series: 80 panel paintings 12/2002 Eighty panel paintings interpret the powerful ambient moods of the moor, ranging from Black Down and Peter Tavey on the northern side, Sheepstor to the south and Hay Tor at the centre. 10. The Lincoln Series: 80 panel paintings 02/2003 Swathes of cream, pearl grey, green and indigo, are posed as equivalents for earth, water and air, in the span of the fenland landscape. 11. The Dartford Series 60 panel paintings 04/2003 Night stops at Thames Haven and by return at Blythe Sands from a boat trip to Calais introduced a resolves the experience of solitary tidal marshland of potent atmosphere. The set the journey. 12. The Salisbury Series 100 panel paintings 07/2003 Titles are taken from villages and settlements strung out along the Wylye Valley and to the north of Salisbury plain. 13. The Tamar Series 80 panel paintings 07/2003 Soft tints of lilac, cream and mint green are laid in broad washes reflecting the span of the great River Tamar, which winds from the coastal estuary at Looe past hilltop villages of St Germans and Gunnislake in the Tamar Valley, to Virginstow in the north of the county.