RSA Scottish Art
Winter Evening
 | Artist: James H Fairgrieve |
| Title: Winter Evening | |
| Year: 1975 | |
| Medium: oil on canvas | |
| Dimensions: | |
| Suggested topic: | |
| Source: RSA | |
| View full screen image of this work | |
| Open print version of this work | |
| © the artist | |
| Description: James Fairgrieve's landscape paintings are based on the remote countryside and the open hills close to his home in Berwickshire.Winter Evening is painted in subdued colours and with clean and simple lines, yet this is also a very acute observation, suggestive of a specific time and season of the year. The road and gate in the foreground are the only reference to human activity in this view, and here they are included to give a sense of scale to the landscape. The real subject of the painting is the land itself, delicately described under deep snowdrifts. The moon can be seen half-visible in the distance. The blank sky and the almost featureless land are reminiscent of a lunar landscape. This painting depicts the physical facts of our land and moon with barely any reference to the fact that humans exist at all. The painting has been executed in a sensitive manner.This simple view of hills needed a gentle touch, and the faintly curving lines and icy palette have been handled with great delicacy. The painting works as a completely abstract image too, with horizontal bands harmoniously shifting from one cool tone to another. Very little texture appears in the brush work, and the tones in the snow are very subtly varied. The mood here is one of quiet, peaceful harmony. The natural world has been silenced by the snow, and the human world seems far away. This meditative view of winter is also quite solemn. Snow is seen as another element of the natural landscape, not as a pretty pictorial feature or a symbol of fun. There is a great feeling of absence, as though everything recognisable has been removed from the scene. Have you ever encountered a landscape with this quiet calm? | |
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