Two artists traversing coastlines and landscapes show the joy of capturing Devon en plein air.
Devon has more vistas worthy of capture than there are potential chess moves. And while lovers of the coast have been (mostly) denied access, artists who capture the sea and landscape are experiencing a huge increase in demand. And what better way to explore than by en plein air – simply meaning painting outside, this method allows artists to incorporate the ever-changing view as it responds to weather, light and time in a way that using photographs and even sketches used as a source material in studios cannot.
Seascape artist Ellie Verrecchia has seen art and coast lovers seek out her work in lieu of experiencing that allimportant view. Ellie and her family are based in Bantham and she gets the inspiration for her paintings from the south Devon shoreline close to her home where she can be found capturing the views en plein air. “I seek out the quieter natural coastline and estuary spots,” she explains. “I love Salcombe on a warm summer evening with a boat, or the Erme estuary for walking. Bantham is my local beach and is wild and beautiful, and always alive with activity. If the weather is really wet, my studio near Bantham is peaceful, bright and crucially dry!
“When it’s going my way, I go into a kind of zone almost like an alert and playful meditation. I tend to work fairly quickly and spontaneously... It’s a bit like tackling a puzzle, like a sudoku of shapes and lines and colours. The materials I like to paint onto have a heavy texture which means the end results are happy accidents between the tools, the paint, the paper and me.
“I’m a lover of big weather – storms, heatwaves, extreme cold and the full colour of autumn. I get pretty excited when a storm blows in. Sometimes it brings me driftwood materials to paint onto, and it always stirs up the sea into a new palette of greys and greens. Spring, summer and autumn make painting outside more comfortable – though I am still happy in mid-winter wrapped up in fingerless gloves and a hat. If you find the right spot out of the wind, it could be any season!”
2021 will see Ellie take on an Artist’s Residency placement on Tresco, Isles of Scilly. “Lockdown has brought my work to the attention of people who love the sea views I paint, but can’t get here at the moment,” she says. “I’ve had unprecedented requests for commissions and made new connections to galleries, including Brownston. I think in 2021 people will continue to value art and beautiful, handmade things that remind them of places they hold dear.
“Sometimes I catch my breath and grin when I catch a glimpse of the sea through the trees,” she says. “South Devon is full of these secret views where the sea colours are so pure and bright they’re almost unreal. The light is peachy and it’s warm enough to swim until the sun sets behind Burgh Island and the lights of the hotel start to shine against an inky sky. Happy times to look forward to this summer!”
Her work featured at Brownston Gallery’s exhibition Marks of Nature, alongside artist Joe Webster. Both artists get their inspiration and subject matter from nature but have very different styles. Webster brings painting en plein air to an extreme, eschewing the traditional easel for unrolling his canvas directly onto the ground, feeling the earth beneath his feet and looking at the trees and skies above him.
“For me, painting is enriching. It is a place outside time and space which is sometimes elating and sometimes unbearable but which makes me feel alive and part of something greater than myself,” says Joe, who loves the challenge of squalls and high winds and “rapidly changing, dramatic light; not being quite sure whether I’m about to be challenged by passing rain so I work expressively/high-octane/ adrenaline-fuelled”.
Both painters have been added to the stable of artists represented and shown at Brownston Gallery in Modbury.
