Jane Boswell - Wild Swimming: An Exploration in Paint

Defining my art is a journey into my soul and my relationship with the Sea, and especially with wild and beautiful places. These responses to the world around me are intertwined with memory, both sensory and emotional through the tactile application of paint, the manipulation of form, the use of colour and light, layered with the addition of words, poetry and mark-making.  My creative responses to place and time are deeply affected by the seasons and the annual cycle is a very instinctive part of my work.

Reflections on summer, bright blues, strong shadows, bold contrasts of dark and light can lose their impetus when in the depths of winter where the palette becomes a more subdued affair. A change of season is part of that coastal journey in both time and place.  A bright colour against a dark shape, a moon over water, waves crashing on the shore, and again a peaceful still ocean, a house, rocks and high cliffs, boats and  harbours , all become stored in my memory along with the other senses of taste, smell and sound. My love of wild swimming has had a profound effect on my work in recent times, where I have explored the sensations of going into cold water, through application of paint, and through my choice of gestural marks and layers of colour.

I enjoy a mystery of incompleteness within my work that is open to individual interpretation by the viewer, eliciting a response that allows a spaciousness of thought, evoking other memories and other times, personal to them yet a journey shared through the pictorial image.

The Gallery is open from 11am - 8pm every day throughout August