Tim Summerton has been drawing inspiration from the Australian landscape for over a decade in his soulful abstract paintings. Summerton works with a wet on wet oil application process, manipulating the slow drying effect of the medium to great effect in his layered canvasses. By working with combinations of saturated bright tones and more gentle hues, Summerton allows form to emerge as a luminous force from the depths of his complex surfaces. The artist is a masterful colourist, bringing together corals with turquoise or purple with green in a seemingly effortless manner. The Night Nest series takes as it subject the transformation of the familiar terrain in daylight into a mysterious landscape at nightfall. Bright white scratches and lines emerge from the depths of thickly dark midnight blues.
Summerton’s work may be abstract, but the connection the artist feels to his natural surroundings is a driving force in his subject matter. The majesty of the lush landscapes in his home of Kangaroo Valley are conveyed in a timeless manner by the artist, extracting the richness of his surroundings and relaying its wholesome, calming effect. Prior to his work in this region, Summerton observed the natural coastal landscape, namely the dunes near Seal Rocks.
Tim Summerton completed a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Newcastle, Sydney in 1998 and an Honours degree in Fine Art from the University of New South Wales in 2000. Summerton has been exhibiting with Tim Olsen Gallery in Sydney since 2002 where he launched his solo career and has had several solo shows since. He was the 2009 runner up for the prestigious Kings School Art Prize. His work is included in the Macquarie Bank’s corporate collection and in numerous private collections in Australia, the US, Britain and Asia. |
 |
Artist Statement - Floating Forest 2011
For the past four years I have been living in Kangaroo Valley on the south coast of New South Wales. A move from a city warehouse studio in Sydney to a rural shed on an old dairy farm surrounded by lush paddocks and mountains.
I have been totally immersed in the surrounding landscape and recently I have focussed on a particular area of this landscape. For the past year I have been living on a farm 10 minutes north from my studio in the upper reaches of the valley, which has a pristine and untouched rainforest on a steep hillside that leads down to a river.
My day almost always starts with a walk into this forest, a very private section of rainforest, immense in beauty. This is a place where I can explore and take in the landscape in total solitude. There is so much to look at under the canopy. Most of my observing is done on the forest floor and the understory layer and in particular the strangling vines that loop and tangle. These vines appear to float as they wrap around and hang from the tall trees in the quest skywards for light. Wandering through the forest I am completely in awe and entranced by this unique vegetation.
For many years now I have been painting the landscape from memory, preferring to paint landscape in the studio environment. Using memory rather than painting onsite allows me to reduce and simplify and focus on the important information. These paintings are somewhat invented landscapes.
After my morning walk I head down to the studio taking with me what has been absorbed. Forest forms float in my mind and the undulating looping line soon appears on the canvas. Some of the vines float gently while others appear chaotic. I enjoy the interplay between wildness and restraint, recklessness and control.
Calligraphic line was one of the first things that came to mind when I started observing the forest and its vines. I apply paint with rubber blades rather than a brush to portray this rhythmical vegetation. Linear forms are painted on built up surfaces and then rubbed out in a continual process of addition and subtraction leaving behind a ghost or trace mark that echoes the use of memory.
This place has always been important for me whilst painting the landscape and deep observation in a specific location over extended periods of time is very important in my painting process. Previous landscape works have been exploring a hillside theme where forms in the landscape are reduced to a series of blot like points. These paintings use this hillside reduction and are now overlapped with flowing intertwined line. In an attempt to capture the forest in its simplest much of the forest information is left out and certain forms are strongly emphasised. Earlier hillside works have a greater sense of distance whereas in the forest the form is totally embracing, almost overwhelming.
|
