The latest exhibition at Rye Art Gallery Landscapes for the Terrified, opened on Sunday October 12, featuring work by Sally Cole and Christopher Baker who share a passion for capturing the essence of the land, sea, sky and weather in remote and spectacular places.
Both artists owe much to the tradition of the Sublime of the 18th and 19th centuries when artists evoked awe, wonder and terror through painting moody mountains, stormy seas, and expansive landscapes, conveying the power of nature.
Sally Cole’s paintings in the show, titled with terms from the shipping forecast, are from her time in New Zealand, Wales and the south coast of England. She sketches landscapes in all weathers and immerses herself in the changes that different weather brings to the landscapes. Like the best tradition of Romantic art, in Sally’s paintings the viewer can feel and hear the power of the sea, the whip of the wind and the spray of the rain.
With her close relationship with place and the weather, Sally is acutely aware of the impact that the changing climate is having on the landscape. While painting in New Zealand in 2023 a cyclone and two months’ worth of rain fell in one week, making it impossible for her to work in the remote location on North Island.
Many of Christopher Baker’s works are huge – Rye Art Gallery has not exhibited such large prints or paintings before and the space is perfect for the scale. In summer of 2017 Christopher travelled to the Arctic in Norway, walking with his huge heavy sketch book on his back to paint the wide-open skies, ice, snow and mountains. His watercolour sketches of the changing weather and light of the scene are on display and the huge Midnight Sun 1, in the lower gallery, capture the vast icy coolness and harshness through the cool colours and thick paint.
In his prints made from hand-painted carborundum relief, Christopher uses colour to explore how different weather and light at different times of the day alter the feel and appearance of, and emotional response to, rock, sea and ice.
Sally and Christopher have collaborated for some time, sketching together in the landscape of Pembrokeshire, painting the same scene at different times and weathers, so that the landscape is more than a representation but an expression of feeling and atmosphere – the familiar represented anew, and powerfully.
Even though their style is very different, both artists use colour and mark making to capture an ever-changing atmosphere and drama. The artist is ever present, observing and responding, but the power of the place is the story.
Landscape for the Terrified is on until Sunday November 23.
Image Credits: Juliet Duff , Sally Cole/ Rye Art Gallery/Juliet Duff , Sally Cole , Christopher Baker/Rye Art Gallery/Juliet Duff .
That ‘Veering West’ by Sally Cole looks like something Turner would have painted!