Beginnings and Ivon Hitchens

Well I have made a start and generally to whet my appetite I have started with looking at the Seasons on the whole. It was very difficult putting down the first thoughts in my sketchbook as I find sketchbooks very difficult to do. I suppose the main reason is I like to be neat and ordered but a sketchbook is permanent and you cannot just rip out a page! I need to loosen up and just go for it! Quick fire drawings I suppose is the secret.

One of my favourite artists is Ivon Hichens and he certainly knew how to depict the seasons. Ivon Hitchens was a contemporary artist whose use of subtle colours and sweeping brush marks made him known as an outstanding English landscape painter during the twentieth century. He left a legacy of work spanning sixty years, from figurative to abstraction.

‘My pictures are painted to be ‘listened’ to.’

‘I should like things to fall into place with so clear a notation the spectator’s eye and ‘aesthetic ear’ shall receive a clear message, a clear tune. Every part should be an inevitable part of the whole. I seek to recreate the truth of nature by making my own song about it (in paint).

Extracts taken from Ivon Hitchens by Peter Khoroche, 1940s ‘NOTES ON PAINTING’ p80-81

This is Hazel Wood, (1944, Oil of canvas 55.8 x 149.8cm) this was the first picture I really saw, it was on a visit to Leeds Art Gallery and I was totally spellbound.

The size and shape of the picture hit me first, as it is double the width of a standard landscape, akin to the wide screen films that we now enjoy to take in more of the scene and action. A standard landscape you can see in one viewing, however with this wide format the canvas can be divided up into two, three or even four sections to allow the viewer to weave their eye over the canvas taking in harmonies, contrasts and being able to sense a feeling of the subject.

The colours are subtle yet vibrant; the use of the dark autumnal colours, olive greens, raw and burnt umbers which create a depth into the gloom of the wood. In contrast there are warmer hues of red, burnt sienna and yellow ochre. The bright limes and white highlights to the outer edges of the picture shine out giving the effect of the sun penetrating into the gloom, framing the wood to draw you in.

He makes the broad stokes of the brush look simple and uncomplicated, but are in fact a complex network of curved vertical and horizontal shapes. He is demonstrating quick intuitive sweeps that can only be obtained through being totally immersed with this subject. Some strokes are layered on others but mainly appear as blocks of paint onto the canvas. There are areas of tone, for example in the centre of the picture, where he has allowed the colours to merge and mix, creating tone and depth.

Ivon mainly painted directly form nature, in the open air which was his preference; he enjoyed soaking up the atmosphere and the changes to nature that the weather and seasons would bring. With Hazel Wood (as with most of his landscapes) he has translated his feelings to canvas so that the impression I feel is late summer when the wood reaches its peak. The trees are rich with their fruit and the leaves are starting to turn after completing their annual objective. It is hot and the coolness of the wood beckons you along the sunlit pathway (bottom left). You can hear the rustle of the leaves, twittering of the birds and the stillness of the wood, like time standing still. The smells are of moss, bracken, fresh and rotting wood. This must be England as opposed to the dryness of hotter climes and as such it inspires a sense of belonging and it evokes a calmness and sense of peace within me.

Hitchens influence will resurface no doubt, not just for the duration of my degree studies but for the duration of my life.