30 x 30 cm | 11 x 11 in
Subject: Abstract
Tags:
Water,
Impasto,
White,
Weather
'A White-Washed Day', original painting in oil on canvas. "Still and unworried scenery looking out across St. John's Hill to the west of Laugharne. An intimate interaction and delicate sky study harking back to the works of Constable and Turner. To the joy of the people of Laugharne, Turner once painted Laugharne castle in 1831. Turner depicts the hopelessness of the isolated coastal communities against the forces of nature. I wanted to reveal the placidity and gentleness of Laugharne - the peace of standing still at the waterâs edge. Working with oil, I wanted to portray the full-bodied cumulonimbus clouds above, but also the thin wisps of furling cirrus spissatus reaching out to Pendine Beach. "
Kettle’s work has the surfaces of well-worn exterior walls, buffeted and corroded with the appearance of having withstood the effects of time and weather – a technique that gives his work an enlivening combination of stoicism and nostalgia.
If one glanced at Kettle’s work for a matter of seconds, it might seem abstract. Quickly, however, a landscape unfolds. A deep green often streaks across the top of the canvas. The implication is the ocean or a night sky, either seems applicable. Look further and we might detect a sort of dance. Each painting has its own internal rhythm. Paint is smeared across the canvas, the trace of a palette knife or similar instrument visible. Drips, drags and smears give the painting body. No wonder Kettle has titled his recent paintings as a sequence of sea shanties. The paintings act as placeholders for songs, for shanties. Human bodies are absent and the paintings are stronger for it; they embody the aftermath of the party, the event, the song. Here, we might draw a comparison with Giorgio De Chirico’s cities, made all the stranger by the lack of human presence. And lastly, a note on Kettle himself. A keen mountaineer and traveller, his artist photo depicts him setting out camping equipment on a snowy mountain. We see a backpack and beside it, three small packages in red, yellow and green. Look at the paintings and these three colours clustered together are a constant. Another trace of human activity, in this case, likely Kettle himself.