York Art Gallery: Views of York & Yorkshire Exhibition

 

York Art Gallery: Views of York & Yorkshire Exhibition 

In August I visited the York Art Gallery and found particular interest in the exhibition on 'Views of York & Yorkshire'. Some works in particular really seemed to capture the sense of place and partially inspired my intrigue with psychogeography and landscape as a medium to explore graphically. 

I really loved Piper's landscape, especially the vigorous and affirmative brushstrokes to really emphasise the grandeur of the urban view he was capturing, outlining the the prominent buildings in black to really help them standout against the backdrop of rooftops. the thick splotches of colour overworked with thin black lines is an expressive and playful way to create the shape of the landscape in an expressive way.

Graham's piece is much more abstract, but what I really loved was the textures he created with the paint to highlight the layers present in a ritual burial site, and allusion to the historical past and rich content within the earth itself. As the captions says, the painting is certainty atmospheric, and I find the pathetic fallacy works well to enrapture the view within the mystery that shrouds the subject matter. 

Another observational painting, Trevelyan utilises two of my favourite materials- watercolour and pencil- to spontaneously capture life as it passes by on a busy day in York Railway Station. I love that despite all the black in the image, Trevelyan has managed to still capture a lightness in style, and with the bursts of red and uses of white highlighting he's managed to create a still that perfectly showcases the impressive architecture of the station's curved roof.