Chris Sheehan exhibition of paintings

The work in this show was painted at Cycadia, a property not far from Gloucester  known for expansive views the sunsets, beautiful at their mildest, utterly incandescent at their most intense.

The skies also enhance the sense of space that makes Cycadia such a delight. That’s the substance of this show. 

The plein air views came from rambling about many walking tracks, setting up in the Kubota and just painting the chosen view. That’s always a lovely way to enjoy a place and a good way to remember the hours spent there. The watercolours feature places nearby to Cycadia just to give some idea of where the Cycadia views look towards.

Originally there was to be equal time on both the sky studies and the sunsets. These differ from the plein air views in that they’re less static and much more quickly put down according to the movement of clouds and the fugitive light of  sunset. But the sunset paintings took over and feature more in this show. They’re studio paintings taken from real-time sunset studies which were very quickly sketched with sometimes just a focus on a specific element of a particular sunset. They’re impressions, an effort to conjure up some of the light and colour that so quickly pass as the sun sets or rises.

There’s a balance between memory and plein air painting mostly in oil. Unlike acrylic, oil lends itself more readily to plein air work where painting for hours isn’t unusual. Acrylics lend themselves to working in glazes because they dry so quickly. The three in this show continue the sunset and memory theme and use glazes to intensify the colour. 

Etching is clearly a very different medium from painting and the plates featured here has been an enjoyable break from painting – and a chance to let the oil paintings dry before working on the next layer. Some of the images are inspired by Cycadia, others are purely imaginary. With its emphasis on drawing etching is a good foil to painting with its focus on colour, light and the plasticity of paint. 

Sadly, this show is a farewell to Cycadia because it’s time now to leave this unique place with its light, space and the views. This show is both a valediction and a celebration of this very special place.  Opening Friday October 25th until Wednesday November 6th.