‘For me, the properties of a landscape can best be discovered when I have revisited a location numerous times, in painting familiar subject matter, the inessential falls away leaving only the essential. I live within walking distance of the Peak District and it still holds a sense of wonder whenever I return.’ Kristan Baggaley September 2016
‘Painting in the landscape is very important to my creative process, where I work in watercolour and acrylic paint on paper and canva s. I have developed a very physical technique when painting in the studio, splattering, dripping, scraping and eventually building up dense layers of paint and sand. The surface of the work is a ll important adding ma terial from the landscape to the work including grit sands and dried vegetation, in cluding sand, heather, bracken and grasses. I cut and drag the media around the ca nvas, using palette knives, forks, spoons etc. These processes combine to reinforce the lack of permanence in the nature of landsca pe.’
‘Quiet Evening, Stanage Edge’ 100cm x 50cm Oil and mixed media on canvas
The Stanage Edge Series. Stanage Edge is composed of a grit stone and extends for three and a half miles along open moorland laying in the heart of the Dark Peak District. At its Southern border the distinctive shape of the edges , rises out of the surrounding flat moorland and continues northward to finish at Stanage End. Stanage is near to where I was born and also where I now live in Sheffield. This rugged and expansive moorland landscape has been one of the greatest influences on my painting since I was young,. Over the years I have returned to this landscape thousands of times, in all seasons and weather conditions. The approaching weather from the West has inspired me since I played on the moors as a child. The sense of open space and distance has been an aspect of landscape that I have tried to interpret since I held a paint brush.
When considering the work in the exhibition I tried to consolidate various aspects of Stanage Edge that I have found inspiring over the years, different vistas, weather conditions, seasonal colours, and the overriding magnificence of the grit stone edge. I have always been interested in the tracks and paths crisscrossing the landscape. Each well-trodden path is a record of time revealing the naturally meandering routes established by those who have traversed the landscape before us, carved through the peats surface like a persistent stream, expressing human and animal movement across the Edge for thousands of years. All the paintings have all been painted this year and relate to the space and light synonymous with my experience of the areas combined with an emotional response to the sense of place.
‘Grey Clouds over Stanage Edge’ 60cm x 45cm Oil and mixed media on canvas
‘Shower over Higger Tor from Stanage Edge’ 60cm x 45cm Oil and mixed media on canvas
‘Shower over Higger Tor from Stanage Edge’ 100cm x 100cm Oil and mixed media on canvas
‘Shower over Higger Tor from Stanage Edge’ 100cm x 100cm Oil and mixed media on canvas
‘Low Cloud, Stanage Edge’
100cm x 100cm
Oil and mixed media on canvas
‘Approaching Rain, Stanage Edge’ 90cm x 60cm Oil and mixed media on canvas
‘Late Summer towards, Stanage Edge’ 120cm x 60cm Oil and mixed media on canvas
‘Evening light over Kinder Scout from Stanage End’ 150cm x 100cm Oil and mixed media on canvas
‘Rain over Kinder Scout from Stanage End’ 150cm x 100cm Oil and mixed media on canvas
‘Evening Sun, Stanage Edge’ 120cm x 60cm Oil and mixed media on canvas
‘Approaching Cloud, Stanage Edge’ 100cm x 50cm Oil and mixed media on canvas
‘Low Cloud over the Hope Valley from Stanage Edge’ 150cm x 100cm Oil and mixed media on canvas
‘Evening Shower across Burbage Moor’ 150cm x 100cm Oil and mixed media on canvas
Gallerytop has been working with Kristan Baggaley for over 12 years and has curated several solo exhibitions of his work. While Kristan’s work is regularly featured in the gallery, the Stanage Edge series was an opportunity to see a closely related group of paintings all produced in a short space of time. Living in the Derbyshire Peak District makes you constantly aware of the landscape and the effects that the weather has on it. You can find yourself captivated by the sun on the mist or enthralled by a storm sweeping across distant moors and edges. It is an extraordinary environment, rich in culture and history. And it can often appear as primordial, delivering a powerful visual and psychological impact. Kristan has made the depiction of this extraordinary landscape his own, with his large oil paintings of sweeping vistas and iconic landmarks. All of Kristan Baggaley’s paintings are of specific locations, but it is the intense and unique sense of place that is conveyed, rather than any attempt to convey the purely scenic. The exhibition includes a series of small studies to convey the observation of and engagement with the landscape prior to the large canvases being conceived and painted.
We are pleased to be able to offer our customers the Arts Council Own Art scheme Own Art is a national initiative that makes buying contemporary art and craft affordable by letting you spread the cost of your purchase over 10 months with an interest free loan of up to £2500 The loan can go towards the payment of a piece of art that costs more than £2,500 provided that you are able to cover the balance in cash or with a credit/debit card. Making an Own Art application is straightforward and takes about 10 minutes in the gallery. We can also arrange for you to make an Own Art application if you cannot get to the gallery in person.
Kristen has achieved a rich atmospheric depth in this new set of work responding to a finely defined topography of the Peak District. He has depicted the vistas, weather conditions, seasonal colours and the overriding magnificence of the grit stone edge. Keith Logan September 2016
gallerytop Chatsworth Road, Rowsley, Derbyshire, DE4 5DD, 01629 735590 infor@gallerytop.co.uk www.gallerytop.co.uk