Meg Buick - The Courtyard
Oil, pencil, pastel and varnish on paper,
70 × 50 cm,
2024
Unframed
Oil, pencil, pastel and varnish on paper,
70 × 50 cm,
2024
Unframed
Oil, pencil, pastel and varnish on paper,
70 × 50 cm,
2024
Unframed
I first looked closely at the Carrington painting ‘Farm at Watendlath when reflecting on the work I wanted to share in this exhibition . It was one of those serendipitous moments where life and art seem to mirror each other , because the painting instantly connected many elements that had appeared in my recent paintings, or ideas for paintings; a house in the woods, or partially obscured by trees , and a child in landscape, tiny against something vast. I hadn’t painted a mother and child together , and the Carrington painting seemed to present a possible approach.
The painting is intriguing because although it seems at first glance to be pastoral, the hills are unnaturally tall to the point that they become slightly oppressive, and the doors of the farm houses, and river are very dark, almost black. The position of the figures is ambiguous - is the child leading or being lead ? So there is a tension within it in it which gives it complexity.
Much of my work riffs and borrows from art history, but only when I can connect deeply to the subject matter . So although this is an interpretation of the Carrington piece, I was more interested in showing a kind of unity between the adult and child figure, and deepening the mysterious feeling of the house between the trees. For me it has become an image childhood, memory, and our relationship to landscape.
Meg Buick
Image for illustration purposes only, artwork supplied unframed
