Bending Light Atop of St. Johns Hill
Peter Kettle70 x 70 cm | 27 x 27 in
'Bending Light Atop of St. Johns Hill', original painting in oil on canvas. "The idea behind this painting - and a lot of my works - is to not compose and arrange the composition into a static representation, but thrust the viewer into an expressive and pictorial distance. Catching the light atop of the hill and searing a moment onto the canvas is a dazzling concept. The landscapes I have chosen are of those fully experienced and understood with at times indescribable subjectivity. Adopting a palette of clay and oil to harness this image is a medium I find comfortable in order to sculpt the mood. A landscape can be construed as seeing visual melodies. Paying particular attention to the fragmented accents in the sky and the billowing giants below is an impression I strive to convey."
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Peter Kettle
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.
