Colin Wilkin
Colin Wilkin lives and works on the Suffolk/Essex border and is inspired by the surrounding landscape. Having studied at Brighton University for his BA and then the Royal College of Art for his MA, Colin has exhibited at the Britten-Pears Library during the Aldeburgh Festival, The Fry Art Gallery, Gainsborough's House and the Curwen & New Academy Gallery.
Iris Weaver of The Fry Gallery has kindly written a few words about Colin's work...
"Colin Wilkin is principally a landscape watercolour artist in the tradition of Eric Ravilious. He inhabits the same spaces which inspired Ravilious to paint a number of his early watercolours. He also lives, and has done since childhood, in the same part of rural north west Essex. So it is not surprising that when you look at Colin's work one is reminded of that modern master of English watercolour." Read in full
Colin Wilkin's exhibition at St. Jude's in July 2009
We'll be exhibiting a series of new watercolour paintings and lithographs from Saturday 18th July to Sat 1st August 2009. Open Thurs-Sat from 10am-4pm. For details nearer the time, please sign up for our e-mail newsletter.
Colin Wilkin's Online Gallery
We'll be adding further images of Colin's work as we work towards his exhibition here. Please click any image below for an enlarged view:
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The Fry Gallery's Iris Weaver on Colin's work...
Colin Wilkin is principally landscape watercolour artist in the tradition of Eric Ravilious. He inhabits the same spaces which inspired Ravilious to paint a number of his early watercolours. He also lives, and has done since childhood, in the same part of rural north west Essex. So it is not surprising that when you look at Colin's work one is reminded of that modern master of English watercolour.
Colin sees the worked landscape leaving traces of habitation but generally not populated by figures, leaving the viewer to write his own text. His own footsteps in the painterly journey he is taking are evident in many of the works, reading sometimes like a map, and the evidence of human habitation is there in an old harrow, a bicycle or a worked out boat. There is a geometric abstraction informing his work, and a complete absence of sentimentality, resulting in a freshness and modern poetic quality. He spends much time walking and looking, and always works on location carrying his studio in a small bag. He finds that using watercolour gives him this freedom.
Colin says: "The important thing to me is to know and experience the landscape thoroughly, and it is the knowledge that comes from walking and cycling that enables me to work from more than one viewpoint on a picture. I need to know what is round the corner or over a hill when I am drawing what is in front of me. It is not a moment in time but a distillation of time."
These ways of approaching landscape are equally evident in his lithographs, of which there are three to date, and delight with his descriptive language derived from his intelligent and sensitive observation.
Colin Wilkin has his own unmistakable voice, and "works" the landscape which he loves and knows so well, in a fresh, individual and modern way.