I’ve just spotted that there’s to be an exhibition of John Nash’s paintings at the Towner Gallery in Eastbourne:

John Nash: The Landscape of Love and Solace | Towner Eastbourne

which is very exciting, as John is so often over-shadowed by his more famous brother Paul.

This will be the first exhibition of his work for sixty years and, especially interesting is that the Towner website says:

“The Landscape of Love and Solace will contextualise the artist’s life and work within the history of the 20th century, and in particular via his key relationships with Dora Carrington and Christine Kuhlenthal, who later became his wife”.

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“Combining acute observation and a strong individual vision Nash’s oeuvre includes many of the finest depictions of the British landscape created in the 20th century” notes the Towner, which immediately brought to mind the John Nash painting in my own local gallery, The Beecroft in Southend,

which always fills me with delight. Why? Partly because there’s so much of interest to look at: the deep wide view to the horizon, the quilt of fields and the man (a farmer?), his dog running ahead. The colours are those of nature, and beautifully calming. And then there is this heap of cut down trunks and branches right in the foreground, ‘blocking’ our view and refusing to allow the painting enter the ‘pastoral’ genre; it’s a recognition that even in winter there is work to be done on the land. The tree stumps to the left are also fascinating, they have a hint of Graham Sutherland – looking a little monstrous or wounded, we might think of that gaping stump as howling in the aftermath of such violence. This is not a ‘bucolic’ Essex landscape then, there are harsh realities. And yet I cannot but sense that ‘opening of a window’ feeling, the scent of late-winter freshness in the air as the land emerges from a blanket of snow; the adrenalin-rush of hope and joy that the season is turning and spring not far away. I want to go out and walk, take it all in.

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There’s a gorgeous-looking book by Andy Friend that accompanies the Towner exhibition.

There is also a really interesting article by Frances Spalding reviewing Andrew Lambirth’s book on John Nash: John Nash and the British landscape | Apollo Magazine (apollo-magazine.com) and 79 paintings by Nash on http://www.artuk.org

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