I am currently working on a series of paintings using images of the earth’s atmosphere.
It is amazing that the whole existence of the world relies on the thin blue line that protects us. It is so fragile, so tenuous, just a tiny sliver of blue, a thin layer of gasses. The oxygen and water that the atmosphere holds plays a fundamental role in the ongoing survival of millions of different species living on the planet. It makes the earth a wonderfully diverse place.
Although I am at the moment using photographs from the NASA web site I believe that best practice means that I should have firsthand experience of the workings of the atmosphere. To do this I plan to travel to one of the Polar Regions to see an aurora borealis.
I have also been revisiting a series of paintings of sunlight glimpsed through trees. I have returned to this subject time and time again in an effort to express my understanding of the experience. The constant repainting of an idea is interesting as thoughts become more refined at each attempt.
So time moves on. I am no nearer to the Antarctica Project but still feel committed to finding a way forward with this.
A sailing holiday in Scotland and entrance pieces to "The Discerning Eye" exhibition have changed my work in differing ways.
The first was really interesting. I have been wondering for some time how much of my work is East Anglian and how much comes from inside me. It turns out that I look for the same tranquillity where ever I am. Off the Western Isles of Scotland I found open seascapes, sweeping hills and fabulous colours that have inspired me in the same way as the Suffolk landscape.
The Atlantic has a depth of blue that seemed fathomless, no number of layers of paint could capture the deep descending water. It appears to start with a turquoise and rise up, via cobalt, alizarin and ultramarine, to pure indigo moderated by the colours below. It really is liquid in appearance.
The Scottish paintings have slightly more realism than earlier work, but still manage to be ambiguous. I have used more drawn thread work in them, which casts shadows on the wall behind the actual canvas.
"The Discerning Eye" changed my work in size. The exhibition calls for work no larger that 20 inches by 20 inches (about 51 x 51 cm) so I made some canvasses 18cm x 50cm. I love them. The format is exciting, the curves are on the top and bottom of the paintings so the light bounces differently to the ones with curved sides. So much for painting larger, I am delighting in painting smaller.
I am also interested in revisiting the idea of free-standing paintings. The opening page to my website has me leaning on a large work that is backed and stands central in a room. The smaller 18 x 50 pieces look really sculptural on a table or cabinet while still maintining the language of paintings.
My recent work has been gaining colour as I have moved away from the coastal greys. Autumn colouring is strong so the paintings have corresponding high hue values.
I still work on curved canvasses but now feel the need to revisit the depth of the smaller works, the proportion does not seem to be so balanced in the small stretchers as the larger ones.
I certainly feel that my paintings work better in a larger form. I would like to paint larger still, but feedback from the exhibitions calls for more small work. Should I ignore this and carry on getting larger and larger? Always the dilemma for artists; do we look to the sales ledger or only to “our art”?
Over the last two years I have been considering applying for the British Antarctic Survey art programme, to spend 3 months in Antarctica. I have resisted putting in an application as I have been unclear about my approach to the project and also my “target group” for showing my completed work. I am getting clearer but still have a lot of work to do before I will actually apply.
I attend weekly life drawing class, so have recently started two paintings of nudes. Am I pleased? Yes I think I am with the application of paint and how the canvasses look, but do they move me in the same way as the landscape? No, I don't think that they do. I will have to persist and see what happens. I find painting a very two-way relationship. I paint and the painting feeds back information to me.
"The area of my work that I am currently focusing on is the surface of the paint. I strive to communicate my ideas exactly, how the painting, and the detail express my thoughts is in the application of the paint, the reflective qualities and the luminosity.
I am continuing to exhibit regularly, with galleries approaching me for work, which is certainly good for the ego. I have entered the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition and await the decision of the selection panel to see if I have secured a place.
I am currently working on a major project for 2009; which will take a great deal of organising, but more of that at a later date.
New work will be on show at the Cotton Art Exhibition 2008 in May and the 9th Artworks Exhibition, Bury St Edmunds September 6th 2008 as well as some in the Buckenham Galleries Summer Exhibition 30th June to 3rd September 2008. I hope you will be able to come to some or all of these events."
"My paintings are my experiences of landscape, worked in oil paint on curved stitched canvasses.
"My recent work has concentrated on light over the sea. A weekend of early mornings in Suffolk, and one of afternoon walks in Dorset has focussed my attention on how the light reflects and doubles on the surface of the water. Inspirational flashes of silver and yellow amid innumerable shades of grey can lift the heart and delight the senses.
Sunrise is a period when the light and colour changes so fast that it is difficult to keep abreast of the sketching, hasty notes have to be taken to supplement the watercolour paints. Swathes of yellow, orange, red; pale blues, purples, greens and greys all vie for position creating horizontal lines and reflections. And grey, how many greys can there be?
The challenge is how to paint a winking line that may be white or silver or palest lemon. Before a decision can be made the whole sky has changed again and throws different colours on the welcoming surface of the sea.
Curved canvasses continue to inform the viewer about the organic nature of the land and seascapes that I express in paint. Stitched lines still work to create dynamic relationships that articulate the view."
"The quality of colour in the East Anglian landscape is a continual surprise to me. I am constantly delighted by how differing states of light can pick out a particular colour in an unexpected place.
Freezing fog rising from frozen water-meadows in front of a burning sunset, shadows from winter trees before a calm stretch of water just as the last glimpse of sun is seen disappearing behind a bank of clouds, icy blue light falling on snow defined by the black weather-boarding of a barn all produce exciting contrasts of colour that are as unexpected as they are brief.
It is these delights that inspire my work, and although at times the colours look far from the greens and browns we think of as landscape, they are all there waiting for a pause in our busy lives, a period of tranquil observation, before we rush on."
"My Dutch heritage and my current surroundings inform the concepts behind my work. The low coastal profile of both East Anglia and Holland leave the viewer with an awareness of the horizon and an understanding of the immensity of space.
Using curved canvases my paintings are informed by the soft rolling undulations of nature, and together with the straight lines of human intervention work to create dynamic relationships that articulate the view.
Colour expresses the ever-changing light and harmony that is around my Suffolk home.
Stitched lines, formed in the structure of the canvas, allude to agricultural and habitation practices that have shaped the landscape we see.
Unlike the dramatic vistas of the Lake District for example, time spent in contemplation reveals the subtle beauty of the Suffolk landscape, which is reflected in my minimal paintings."
"Viewers of Eleonora Knowland’s work will encounter gentle, curved, canvases which reflect the volume of East Anglia’s landscape. These gentle landscapes are pieced with hand stitching – as precise as that of a surgeon – folds are made, pulling the canvas’s to reveal, almost like a wound, something so bright and colourful it is as if Eleonora wants us to remember a forgotten pleasure lying beneath her soft delicate pallet of oil colour. These moments of colour are often an immerging or retreating sun framed by the huge Suffolk vista over our heads, as she writes ‘freezing fog rising from frozen water-meadows in front of burning sunsets’."
"Eleonora has developed a unique and exciting style of painting. Her curved canvases cross the border between sculpture and painting, and it is this which is integral to her work. Inspired by the surrounding landscapes, her work captures a precise time of the day (like 0300 Spring, or 0730 Winter). Stitched lines, and gaps in the canvas are now appearing more in her work, and these create a structure or form in each piece. Gentle gradation of delicate hues, compliment the undulating canvases, with sudden bursts of brilliant vibrant colour add dynamism to each work."
"It seems clear to an observer of these works that they are produced by someone with a close affinity to the land and its husbandry. This may not be obvious at first, but on closer inspection and with the back-up of excellent source material, it becomes very clear.
Strong and imaginative photographic references are the starting point for sketches which, eventually, reduce the surface to the abstract essence of a landscape. Equipped with this distilled fund of information Eleonora Knowland then creates minimalistic and atmospheric canvases.
The painting supports are themselves shaped with convex and concave curves, which echo the subtle Suffolk undulating countryside. The cutting and stitching of some of the pieces breaks and makes tensions and creates a focal point. Using what appears to be a very limited palette, which on closer inspection is full of colour, she emphasises her rapport with the agricultural landscape which is the driving force behind this body of work."