Lesley Jones

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My work is inspired by landscape….

in its broadest sense, a word that encompasses - Coastlines, hillsides, gardens, lakes, rivers, rocks and water, weather, storms and high seas, crumbling cliffs, fossils exposed to daylight after millions of years.  Seed heads and roots and everything between repeated through time. Patterns of growth and formation.  Water flowing, transforming itself and all it touches.  Infinite and unfathomable sky: air and light, haze, rain, mist, fog, wind, breeze; the weather.

and by journeys…

Journeys offer infinite viewpoints – hills, valleys, and shores shaped by nature and coloured by the seasons, altered by the quality of light in the atmosphere. At certain times and in certain lights, land and sky appear indistinguishable.

How I travel affects how I see things; a long journey by car presents rapid changes of scenery, fast moving  images seen through windows and therefore apart from me, bringing a feeling separation from familiar territory as well as the anticipation of discovering something new. On the other hand taking a walk involves all of the senses, and gives me chance to touch and smell, to think, to discover and collect objects to surround myself with.

I created the semi-abstract landscape paintings from memories of journeys, using the physical properties of the paint as well as its colour to recreate both the visual memory and the mood in which the journey was made. The abstract pieces I created in response to natural phenomena; they are smooth, subtle pieces on carefully prepared canvas that I hope convey to the viewer something of my sense of amazement at the natural world