Get Constable - Simon Carter is at Gallery 1, The Town Hall Galleries, Ipswich until February 23. Open Tues-Sat 10-5. Get Constable, a new body of work by Essex- born painter Simon Carter, takes its inspiration from the paintings and drawings of John Constable; arguably East Anglia's most famous son.
Get Constable - Simon Carter is at Gallery 1, The Town Hall Galleries, Ipswich until February 23. Open Tues-Sat 10-5.
Get Constable, a new body of work by Essex- born painter Simon Carter, takes its inspiration from the paintings and drawings of John Constable; arguably East Anglia's most famous son. It includes acrylic paintings of various sizes, watercolours, charcoals and pencil sketches.
Unlike most exhibitions that present the viewer with a final image, this show examines the painterly process; revealing numerous sketches in a variety of styles that form the narrative of the work.
Simon Carter is a serious painter, of that their can be no doubt. His vibrant palette and bold use of shape exude confidence. The Mill Stream, and Flatford Bridge, both acrylic on canvas, not only reveal immense energy but also explore the nature of painting. Carter's broad brushstrokes and multi-layered paint, scraped back, reapplied and sometimes dripping makes for paintings of great physicality. In both works the river at Flatford is made up of loose rippling bands and reflections that have an innate textural rhythm.
In the smaller painting Willy Lott's And The River II, acrylic, one is presented with a familiar vista. Carter transforms it; the roof of Lott's cottage glows brazen orange red, the tone and form of the foliage beside it has an almost sinister depth. Like After A Sketch By Constable I, acrylic, this is a work of striking intensity; fresh and coherent.
Swans At Flatford is equally dynamic. Again the paint is multi- layered and played with; a mass of white grey water in which broad lines of purple and blue ripple and dance on its surface, the loose outline of swans swimming atop.
Simon Carter studied at the Colchester Institute and North East London Polytechnic and has shown his work in numerous solo and mixed exhibitions in East Anglia and London. He has won a number of awards and has paintings in a variety of collections.
This is an impressive and uplifting exhibition that will appeal to students and practitioners of art as well as art enthusiasts. Not to be missed.
Sonia Carvill
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