Page 7 - Art First: Bridget Macdonald: The Poetry of Earth

I was born at Knowles Farm, a few hundred yards from sculpture, figures in the landscape including an old shep-
St Catherine’s Lighthouse on the southernmost tip of the herd in present day Arcadia, a young man in the Hereford -
Isle of Wight. is unique and romantic landscape was shire hopyards, a group of women riding to hounds with
my childhood world. It shaped my imagination and has a Worcestershire hunt. Imaginary portraits of poets form
been a source of inspiration ever since. I now live in the an occasional, ongoing series: Sylvia Plath as a beekeeper,
Malvern Hills, in another inspirational place, but I still Shelley sailing off Livorno and Keats walking on the Isle
have a sense of coming home whenever I cross the Solent. of Wight cliffs. ere are drawings and paintings of the
Island landscape, the River Severn in flood, and a bull
A synthesis of observed reality, memory and art historical which my grandfather once owned that reappears at inter-
or poetic source material is the basis of my practice. Draw - vals in my work in different guises.
ing and painting are equal but alternative ways of realising
certain ideas and act as a counterpoint to each other. I have painted the iconic tower of St Catherine’s Light -
For example, the small paintings of a sprig of bay picked house many times over the years, in all seasons and moods.
in Greece complement the charcoal drawings on classical e wind sculpted pine tree outside the lighthouse gate
themes. e birds flitting throughout this collection is also a recurring motif. Like the lighthouse, it has been
of works appear in both the paintings and drawings. a constant presence in my life–the source of my earliest
memories, along with the continually renewed population
e literary and artistic concept of the pastoral has a partic- of magpies, crows and grazing cattle which are always
ular resonance for me. e complexities of pastoral, with to be found there.
its evocation of Arcadia and its sense of loss and nostalgia
for a Golden Age, correspond with my own experiences e earliest work in this collection is Coastal Landscape
and family history. It has given me a framework on which with Dancers (aer Claude) from 1992. e figures are
to interweave images which may appear disparate but based on my children’s friends at that time and re-enact
connect and spark off each other in my mind. Hang ing an imagined country dance. ey are set in a landscape
this exhibition at Quay Arts on the Isle of Wight revealed borrowed from a painting by Claude Lorrain.
new relationships between works from a 20 year period.
ere are drawings based on fragments of Ancient Greek Bridget Macdonald Malvern, 2013