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Joe Webster: playing in the wind, rain, mist or sun

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‘The answer, my friend is playing in the wind. The answer is playing in the wind’. Which is our round-about, lyric busting way of introducing Joe Webster.

Plein-air

Joe Webster is a plein-air artist whose canvases are formed by playing in the wind, rain, mist or sun.

Exhilarating challenge

Rather than painting in his studio with sketches, photos or memories, Joe’s work emerges from the exhilarating challenge of being outdoors in the great British climate. Working with graffiti and water-based media, the effect of weather on his canvases defines the aesthetic of his paintings. Rain, mist, hail, ice and sun each create different challenges and leave diverse effects in the paint on his canvas.

From a canoe

Being Present is an exhibition of Joe Webster’s latest works painted in Devon, and in particular from aboard his canoe as he paddles around the creeks of the Kingsbridge estuary.

Bluebells from West Alvington woodland are presented alongside views to Horse’s Head at East Prawle, and Joe hopes to bring his canoe into the gallery too.

Intimacy

Being Present describes Joe’s working method, his philosophy of putting aside digital media, and the intimacy gained with his landscape.

Joe’s work dances between abstraction and realism as he aims to confront and challenge both sense of place and sense of self.

Raw, wild and unforgiving

“I grew up weather-beaten and windswept painting the raw, wild and unforgiving landscape of Cornwall’s Atlantic coastline, where huge roaring breakers relentlessly smash into the soaring, jagged cliffs,” says Joes.

“From a very young age I revelled in venturing out into squalls and being blasted by hail or foam, immersion in this environment is for me invigorating, humbling and is intimately my home.”

Gallery talk

To learn more about how Joe produces his paintings, both on the water and on dry land, go along to an informal gallery talk with the artist on Saturday 3 August at 11 am. There’s no need to book and admission is free.

Being Present: An exhibition of plein air paintings by Joe Webster is at Harbour House, Kingsbridge, Devon, from 30 July to 4 August 2019 from 10am–5pm.

To find out more about Joe Webster go to his website, follow him on Twitter, Pinterest or Instagram.

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