Artwork of the Month: January
January's Artwork of the Month has been chosen by Charlotte Price RWA. She has picked Edge of the Field by Michael Porter from the RWA Permanent Collection. Charlotte writes:
'Edge of the Field by Michael Porter was an inevitable choice as my Painting of the Month. His subject matter resonates with my own interests that engage with the very particular of a landscape rather than the general.
Porter’s fascination with the microcosms of nature found at our feet sits within a wider context of art works that observe the insignificant of a landscape. Albrecht Dürer’s Great Piece of Turf (1503) and Michael Landy’s Nourishment (2002) are of the same genre.
As observers we have an aerial view of this small piece of the land that Porter has chosen to record. Three leaves at the forefront of our vision are suspended above what seems to be a fizzing ferment of colour and texture that softly meld together the debris of natural matter beneath.
These sub-layers lie like semi-opaque membranes each distinguished by the properties of its constituents. The surfaces reveal the soft and scummy residues of deteriorated vegetation or the more defined particles of the fragmented sub-soil interspersed with fragile strands of grass.
Porter’s website reveals much about his working process. His films demonstrate a physicality in handling his materials that is palpable. Each purposely used substance whether water-based or oil-based, wet or dry, moves across the paper unwittingly coalescing or rejecting its neighbour. Sometimes he allows himself to follow these incidental actions and at other times he coerces his ingredients this way and that until the effect is satisfactory. It is inspirational.
Michael Porter's painting will be on display on our upstairs landing throughout January.