Why painting has never been ‘Just a Walk in the Park’
August 13, 2020
A captivating art exhibition begins next month at the Rountree Tryon Galleries in Petworth. Chantelle Rountree, from the gallery, reveals more…
Artist Gordon Rushmer has had a career spanning 55 years, with many high points marking his progress through the twists, turns and ‘hard-going’ that characterise most creative lives.
His early days in the 1960s were a time of searching for a language of expression, discovering how to find and then ‘see’ a subject, to express a feeling for the chosen idea and how to get it down in paint.
A request from the Royal Netherlands Marine Corps to record in paint their operations in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1996 was to change his life and challenge him as never before. Landscape painter, to war artist, is a dramatic career move. From the peace of the South Downs he was transported first to the Balkan conflict, then on to Eritrea, Kosovo, Afghanistan and Iraq. Over a period of 12 years he painted the activities of both the Dutch and British Marines and Special Forces.
Gordon returned to a more settled life in 2008 and sought-out the tranquillity of his beloved ’South Country’. The South Downs and the Weald have always been Gordon’s local backdrop so it seemed an obvious retreat from the horrors of war. It has proved to be the healing medicine.
Out of this reacquaintance with the landscape of his youth has come a body of work that celebrates the 10th anniversary of the South Downs National Park. For the last three years Gordon has walked the Downs and explored the Weald, rivers, villages and woods.
Along with an accompanying book ‘A Celebration of the South Downs National Park’ a major exhibition of Gordon’s paintings entitled ‘The Wind in the Trees’ will be shown at Rountree Tryon Galleries in Petworth from 12 to 25 September. The exhibition is supported by the South Downs National Park Authority and is held in aid of ‘Trees for the Downs’ with a percentage of the sales being donated to this tree planting project.
For more details visit www.rountreetryon.com