Luke Elwes

SECRET WATER

3 September - 10 October 2009

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Luke Elwes, Fruit (Secret Water 24), 2008, watercolour on paper, 56 x 76 cm

Over the past two years a small patch of ground at Landermere Creek has become a roofless studio for Luke Elwes. Here, time and the seasons have washed over successive sheets of paper taped onto old boards and wooden bench tops. What emerges in the fluid engagement with earth, water and paper is as much to do with the transient light, the sea breeze and rising tide as with what is rapidly enacted on a white surface with crayon, pen, ink and watercolour.

Luke Elwes, Spring (Secret Water 15), 2008, watercolour on paper, 56 x 76 cm

The transience of the natural realm is reflected in the making process for Luke Elwes. Each piece captures a unique moment in a continually evolving environment - succumbing to a brisk sea breeze, an enveloping winter mist, or to a sudden downpour. Pigment dissolves, runs and dries in unforeseen ways (and with unexpected results) as the paper’s surface becomes rain spattered, mud flecked, or simply chilled and dampened by the seasonal air. And each time the resulting image belongs as much to the elements as to the artist who began it.

Luke Elwes. Landermere July 2009

Luke Elwes, Waterfront 4, 2008, mixed media on Indian cotton rag paper, 30 x 30 cm