Issue link: https://read.uberflip.com/i/1528621
70 LUCY HOMER JONES I set out to observe the contemporary Shoreham landscape as Palmer would have encountered it but without the evidence of the 21st Century. The world is never static, the form, the light, the sky, everything is constantly moving. 200 years ago when Palmer painted feels like a long time ago, but in the history of our earth it is the blink of an eye. I started by researching Palmer's subjects, painting and methodology. I was drawn to the views of the village of Shoreham nestling in its valley and the ancient trees in Lullingstone Park. I began my journey by returning to these views with en plein air studies. I was particularly struck by the purity of his work in Shoreham. I chose to restrict my pallet to the purest of colours; red, blue and yellow on the simplest of white surfaces in response. I captured the Shoreham valley in the fading light of a beautiful autumnal day. I loved the low light falling on the forms of the landscape. The variety in the colour of the trees in autumn, the landscape more wooded than it would have been in Palmer's day. The far reaching dramatic perspective of the hill cascading to the distant Weald landscape below. Back in the studio I developed the watercolours into a more lyrical abstract work, focusing on the perspective, the light, the colour celebrating the constancy of the landscape and its purity. The energy of the landscape was particularly evident in the ancient trees in Lullingstone Park, now on a busy golf course. They are forgotten except for information boards at the clubhouse explaining that the veteran trees were old and supposed to look like that! On finding the actual trees I was struck by how unloved they felt and the reality that whilst the artist can have a significant relationship with them they are oblivious and carry on with their long lives. No longer visually connected to each other, but isolated in their overgrown islands. I felt like they were glad to be seen, but they felt restricted. The beauty of Palmer's tree paintings was the spaciousness they explored with their expansive branches and the relationship of the trees to one another. Today in their contemporaneous state I wanted to convey the restriction and isolation in the undergrowth that they suffer but also celebrate their hidden survival. Although the natural world has seen many changes in the last 200 years it has consistency even through life cycles. I chose to focus on this. It is a massively positive thought that with everything that humans have wrought on the landscape the foundations of its beauty are still there. In careful observation of the landscape, like Palmer I am also experiencing and celebrating the beauty and wonderment of the natural world which I believe Palmer felt. W W W . L U C Y H O M E R J O N E S . C O M