Luke Elwes
Luke Elwes' paintings are lyrical evocations of the natural world and an exploration of man's place within it. An artist, historian and naturalist, Luke has journeyed to remote and far flung regions, observing and painting wild places and the traces of history and existence marked on the landscape by man. In recent years he has lived and worked for much of the time on Osea Island off the Essex coast, producing many works based on his love of the island and its natural beauty.
The works on paper in the exhibition are expressions of the artist's encounter with the landscape of Osea, the tides, mud creeks, shifting light, wide horizons and the mingling of earth, sea and sky. Working directly onto paper in the open air, Luke uses a variety of media, including watercolours and washes of ink, mud and water, inscribing the surface with crayons, metallic markers, felt tips and plaster dust. They are evocations of place and landscapes of memory.
Luke has described these works as 'growing out of a twin impulse, the wish to explore the visual field with the most direct means available – minerals, matter, water and paper – and to do it by taking one patch of ground, a small island, and looking at it deeply, again and again, to see what it yields.'
Luke was born in London in 1961 and went to the Camberwell School of Art. He has had many successful solo exhibitions at the Rebecca Hossack Gallery in London and Art First in Cork Street. His work has been shown around the world, and he has recently completed a commission for the chapel at the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst.
Luke's work shown by courtesy Art First, London www.artfirst.co.uk
