'This Quiet Earth' Acrylic, collage, gesso and varnish on board 1m x 1m (c) Stephen Riley

This Quiet Earth

Art and stuff…
I recently got this painting back from an exhibition at Bruton Art Factory, and whilst it was waiting to be put back into the studio, I saw it in this lovely raking light, which shows off well some of what I was trying to achieve when I created it. The photograph does change the painting’s colours to an extent – in reality, it is all pure white gesso apart from the crackles, which contain blue, green and yellow – but then paintings do change with the light that falls upon them; some more than others.

I’m not sure if I’m surprised that it didn’t sell at the exhibition or not: on the one hand, I do think it’s a strong piece; on the other, I’m always taken by the fact that viewers see things differently and often buy what I don’t expect to sell and leave what I do. But anyway, if anyone out there in cyberland is interested in buying it or showing it, do ping me a message.

The title, incidentally, comes from a half-remembered/misremembered line from Wuthering Heights and my envisaging the snow-covered undulations of the windswept moors that abut the Bronté's home.