Minimal Landscape

The land where I live in Leicestershire is relatively flat heathland long converted to farmland, mostly agricultural with an often dreary landscape.

The land where I live in Leicestershire is relatively flat heathland long converted to farmland, mostly agricultural with an often dreary landscape. Much as I like to travel I am only able to do this intermittently, which means most of my photography is close to home. As I like to walk and take the dog with me this limits to a radius of approximately 10 miles.
Seeking to photograph this landscape in a fresh, creative way, an attempt to describe what I see and feel, led me to this work. I decided to photograph foreground, middle ground and sky and then assemble into a vertical triptych. I further sought to reduce the detail to colour and pattern and there were several influences for this. The Impressionists, Paul Cézanne’s Mount Sainte-Victoire view from Louvres (1904), and the almost pixilated brushwork effect created by Paul Signac in Capo di Noli (1898) were a start. George Seurat the creator of Pointillism, La Seine à la Grande-Jatte (1888) and Bridgit Riley’s homage to Seurat, Pink Landscape (1960), are all influences although the work is perhaps more object, rather than colour, separation. The prints, much like impressionism look different when viewed closely, or from a distance. I am also drawn to the work of Mark Rothko and other colour field artists of the Abstract Expressionist period including Ad Reinhardt, Josef Albers and Hans Hofmann. I did discover the work of another artist, after I started this work, Brice Marden. Marden’s ‘For Pearl’ (1970), a vertical triptych of blocks of colours representing the south of France. Originally called ‘A Mediterranean Painting’ Marden changed the name following the death of Janis Joplin. Available as A4 or A3 giclee Epson premium semi-gloss prints: https://robin-stewart.sumupstore.com/