Enchanted Lands

by Evening Gazette

Enchanted Lands:
Darlington Arts Centre Until Saturday, September 13

Tense:
Until Saturday, September 27.

TWO unusual and distinctive looks at landscape are on show at Darlington Arts Centre from this week.

In the Myles Meehan Gallery from today, Judith Tucker finds connections to make us all TENSE in the main exhibition, while in the outside Lounge Gallery, Lisa Nicholson shows ENCHANTED LANDS.

Tense (pictured below is Springboard), looks into the relationship between three places and times using monochrome drawings and a parallel series of paintings using special pigments.

“The crucial aspect of these works is an attempt to find forms for a fading history,” says Judith.

“I turn what might be a comfortable image into an unfamiliar one.”

Lisa Nicholson’s Enchanted Lands peeps into ancient lands, angelic planes, mythological and fairy realms.

“They develop organically through layers of paint and scraping it away,” she says, “and ethereal figures emerge from their landscape of colour, texture and light.

“The many layers yield a succession of versions for each viewer. Above all, these are paintings to live with, paintings whose hidden depths are continually developing.

“Look into the painting, and see where it may take you.”