A Green Thought
Exhibition of drawings and paintings by Diana Hand
“Annihilating all that’s made
To a green thought in a green shade”
From “The Garden” Andrew Marvell (1621-1678)
22nd to 27th September, 2018
12 pm to 5 pm
Whitespace Gallery
76 East Crosscauseway
Edinburgh, EH8 8HQ
This exhibition of paintings represents a brilliantly sunny week in May. Two of the large paintings are based on blurred photographs of a train journey to Dundee along the River Tay. These paintings are already quite abstract. I photographed the hedgerow as a way of understanding natural growth in colour rather than the winter hedgerows in a series of drawings (not yet pictured here). It is on the borderline between extreme detail and abstraction. The smaller paintings are from quick shots of the light through a plum tree growing over my garden wall.
All these paintings were made using the grid method, trying to be as objective as possible as I moved over and over the painting, constantly reassessing and masking off whole areas. This bypassed my brain and enabled me to see the image in a much more exciting and unexpected way, which generates infinite possibilities. It is a fascinating process to see each section as an independent composition, so fresh.
The figurative pieces, particularly the large hedgerow painting, could be translated into abstraction. I like the idea that the shapes and form are unmediated and work as the source of a simplified painting.
The small charcoal drawings are the initial studies from a black and white photograph using the grid method.