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*Film has always been, and always will be, the main driving force of my desire to be creative; It was the 1st art form that grasped my attention and it has played a big role in both my research and the practical side of my work. It's also been one of the key mediums that has got me through this lonely time of Covid.
*Over this year, the films I've watched have been heavily linked with loneliness, landscape, journey, regret, identity, home and most importantly tenacity. With landscape, camera, a lone figure(s), and a soundtrack working together, the atmosphere feels very cathartic. The Director of 'The Martian' Ridley Scott and Matt Damon(Mark Watney) agreed that there was no need for the main character to be vividly crying and acting in a state of turmoil on camera as 'the enormity of his plight, the existential dread, will flow from the vast loneliness of the landscape'. By being able to experience the loneliness I've felt this year in a different world, different set of circumstances, and see the character persevere, was very emboldening.
'Its heart, humor and rousing story of perseverance and global collaboration promise to broaden the film’s appeal well beyond nerds.' John Schwartz on 'The Martian', New York Times.
*The way landscape is used in cinema can be so contrasting, it becomes a character, it frames the story and the viewers emotions in such a powerful way. In Dunkirk, Christopher Nolan is so brilliant at turning the beach from a place of utter fear and helplessness into one of hope and resilience. It connects so deeply with my fervour to keep going, and knowledge that the feeling of community and home that I'm looking for in London will come, as long as I stay true to who I am. These moments motivate me to paint, to pour my sense of hope onto canvas.
*'Lion' and 'Harry Potter' both grapple with a persons desperate search for identity, belonging and home. I don't relate 'literally' to the main characters, I'm not an orphan, or a child who lost and found his mother, but growing up in an Alpha male world as a hyper-sensitive person, I didn't really find a tribe of people I felt comfortable in, and I seeked affirmation in the wrong places. My knowledge of who I am, in some areas of my life still feels very uncertain.
*Now without making this a personal account of my struggles, my reason for sharing some of my life that ties in with these films I've included, is that both the character and the landscape transform for the better, the landscape shapes the character, and the character grows in it's place of origin. It's only been in recent years that I've realised how proud I am to have come from such a remote part of Northumberland. These films have not only helped shape who I am, they've encouraged me to draw from the simple beauty of landscape as inspiration.
Being able to see examples of how characters wrestle with regret and respond to them in risky but positive ways is also very empowering. In the film 'Moneyball', Billy Beane is constantly reminded of his failure as a baseball prodigy and how this drives his crazy idea to turn the notion of assembling a baseball team on its head. The risks I'm taking and the things I'm doing differently from others, is for sure a reaction to the past, and I feel more courageous when I watch uplifting films like this, not only in the way I live but also the way I paint. There's a love of how film makes me feel, and that flows onto the landscapes I create.
There's a sense of integrity and showing moral fibre that these films encourage, and I feel deeply motivated to channel these examples into my painting and what I choose to focus on. This year has been a constant struggle with wanting my work to seem impressive and conceptually relevant to a modern london audience, rather than purely showing who I am, what I'm feeling, and where I'm from.
The Dig was a film that really encouraged me to persevere with my studio work, particularly when the schools re-opened in April, and the idea of cycling from West London to Camberwell seemed rather daunting. The main character Basil Brown, works hard, cycles miles to the site and back every day, respects his employer, and doesn't seek out shallow praise, he works because it's his passion. He's like a donkey, un-complacent, strong, willing to take on any load and keep going, bit-by-bit.