This series of landscape studies has been painted entirely on location. They are all painted from the same viewpoint near Beachy Head in East Sussex and are sections selected from the panoramic view. They are a direct response to what I saw and the experience of being in the landscape.
Each of these studies was carried out over several painting sessions. My objective is to create an artwork in which I have been successful in getting things right.
That is not necessarily an image that looks photographic, but a painting that has the beauty and calm of the landscape, is unified by light and is harmonious.
I have never seen the point of working away from the subject matter. That is because I do not paint pictures of things, I make studies. The satisfaction I derive from painting is the experience of observing and the struggle to achieve a successful outcome.
For me this experience is a kind of meditation in which I become so absorbed in the creative process that the paintings evolve in a slow spontaneity. This is a highly pleasurable kind of alchemy in which base materials, pigments, linseed oil and canvas are transformed into artworks, which will hopefully be appreciated by others.
When I was a teenager growing up in Sussex, the Downs were what inspired me to begin painting. I have continued to paint the landscape ever since. After living and working as an artist in London and the North East of England, I returned to live in Sussex in 1999 to be close to what is my favourite subject and was my original source of inspiration.
David Stubbs / The Rowley Gallery
PS: Three of David’s still life paintings are presently displayed in the East Sussex Open Exhibition at the Towner Art Gallery, Eastbourne.
