Simon Carter Photograph: Noah Carter Winter Sea, 2011 Front cover (detail) (catalogue no.(catalogue 46) Simon Carter

The Shapes of Light

2013

www.messums.com 8 Cork Street, London W1S 3LJ Telephone: +44 (0)20 7437 5545 … how days pass in the studio

Today is the 22nd November. It is Thursday and, like most I trace over some of the drawings on the light box, taking a days, I have been down to the beach to make drawings. The degree of expression out of the lines to see how they work as sun was beginning to dissolve amongst a vast Turneresque glow. design. With some paintings I repeatedly copy drawings on the The wind was blowing pale rivers of sand across the beach and light box; I like the way that unexpected outcomes sometimes corrugating the sea, waves coming in small and packed together. arise from the imperfections of this process. I might square up There were a few gulls and a few sanderling at the water’s edge. one of these copies and use it to rework the canvas. This as a On the horizon freight ships were lining up to enter Felixstowe way of forcing change onto the painting and of not allowing a and wind farms flickered in distant sunlight. There was a single sense of satisfaction with it. As the painting develops over the yacht passing. next few weeks and months, I will return to the beach many times. I will also make drawings from the painting and from I made 7 drawings quickly and without much attempt at revision the location drawings; edging forward looking for something or second thought. I was at the beach less than an hour before to happen. 1. Figure and Sea, 2011 returning to the studio a few roads back from the seafront. It is 2. Study for ‘Figure and Yacht’ I, 2011 mixed media on paper only back in the studio that I can see whether there is anything Although the painting might end up as only a few marks, the mixed media on paper 1 7 1 18 x 25 cms 7 ⁄8 x 9 ⁄8 ins 21 x 23 cms 8 ⁄4 x 9 ins of interest or use in the day’s drawings. I make a pot of tea and process of making the painting is a prolonged and improvised go through the work. discovery of those marks; marks that seem true and that return the painting to some relation with things seen. I seem to need I find the act of drawing in the landscape not only provides a those things observed out in the world, things that I have found record of information but also opens a gap between what is seen engaging and compelling and around which a painting might and what is painted, allowing both to have their proper space. start to coalesce. It also adds to the lexicon of possible marks that might allow painting to address those things seen. I scrape out all the paint, remix the pale turquoise and put up a new set of marks. I block in a pale shape in the upper half of the The first 3 drawings were made with a hard graphite stick, canvas but lose the sense of air in the surface, I try darkening scratching in clouds above lines of waves, but they now seem the turquoise, scrape out the horizon, alter the ratio of red to too tentative. The remaining 4 drawings were made using a blue in the grey I’m mixing, scrape out and reapply a pale colour mix of soft and hard graphite. Layers of cloud are traced in an that has muddied, sit for a while to see where it is all going and oily black line passing above a thick dark sea lined with more then try again. A few marks of paint can contain everything or waves. These seem to have in them a fragment of the afternoon nothing. but at an interesting tangent to it. One of these drawings looks particularly complete and provides a way of making sense of, It is the end of the afternoon before things start to have any and using, the others. I cut a mount from scrap paper in order truth to them. The light is gone but I have the beginnings of to isolate the central part of this drawing and use it to make something to come back to tomorrow, an early conjecture that another start on the small canvas hanging on the painting wall. requires work. Blocking in a pale turquoise that might stand for the wind- This is how days pass in the studio. scoured cold afternoon light, I then make a few big lines in a dark rusty grey guided by the new drawing. Simon Carter Simon Carter: The Shapes of Light Andrew Lambirth

The theme and viewpoint of this new body of work by Simon Carter, made over the last 16 months, is that of a spectator standing on a beach and looking out to sea. It is a very particular beach and a very particular stretch of sea, because Carter paints the coast he has known all his life, that he has grown up with and loves. Effectively, this comprises seven or so miles of Essex coastline centred on his home town of Frinton- on-Sea. This is his landscape and his mindset, the crucible of his painterly thought and activity. All his new paintings derive from drawings made at different sites around the town: on the marshes, by the beach huts, along the sea wall. But the focus is not on incidental details but on the elements: earth, sea and sky. As he says: ‘In a sense there’s nothing there – but there’s also everything there.’

A single figure features in many of these new paintings, a solitary outline in a depopulated landscape. In fact, the figure is often a silhouette and is based upon the shadow that Carter himself throws on the ground, and it has the same foreshortening of a shadow at certain times of day – rendering Carter’s tall body stockier in shape. Another source for this figure is van Gogh’s On the Road to Tarascon, famously used by Francis Bacon in his van Gogh paintings, and already used by Carter in a painting entitled Van Gogh in Essex. In his life and his paintings, Carter stresses his closeness with his surroundings: ‘myself and the landscape, there’s no separation between us’. The artist paints himself into the landscape, but his figure also 3. A Bank of Clouds, 2012 (opposite) acrylic on canvas stands for the spectator. We are thus encouraged to share the 1 3 110 x 100 cms 43 ⁄4 x 39 ⁄8 ins unique role of artist as observer, and to enter the painting. In

4. Study for ‘Figure and Yacht’ III, 2012 (above) fact, there are two main groups of pictures here: those in which mixed media on paper 5 3 27 x 30 cms 10 ⁄8 x 11 ⁄4 ins 5. Study for ‘Figure and Yacht’ II, 2012 (below) a figure appears, and those in which the light is the principal mixed media on paper 5 1 presence. But whatever the subject, these paintings, focusing 27 x 31 cms 10 ⁄8 x 12 ⁄4 ins on the threshold of sea and rock where the elements are in flux, 6. Figure and Yacht II, 2012 (opposite) are mostly about how sunlight falls on land or water, and the acrylic on canvas 150 x 160 cms 59 x 63 ins shapes it makes.

The process by which Carter arrives at these paintings is an interesting and complex one. To begin with he makes any number of drawings in front of the motif, in often quite small sketchbooks. He might be drawing with grey oil pastel, pencil or charcoal and perhaps a couple of coloured crayons (blue and yellow). These are tonal studies done very quickly, made instinctively and without too much conscious control, perhaps six or eight in a morning. Each drawing records about 10 minutes of concentrated looking, and each painting may use 40 or 50 of these drawings. Back in the studio, Carter makes other, more schematic drawings on a light-box, tracing over the original studies, formalizing them. The information in the first observational drawings is filtered and simplified in the studio drawings, and the ideas for a painting begin to emerge. As Carter has said: ‘Subjects are only starting points. The further I get from the point of departure, the more I can see the painting.’

There is a crucial gap between the experience of looking at the sea and the making of the painting. Into that gap comes drawing. It is, in effect, a strategy for distancing the two activities – looking at nature and painting – in order that the painted image is not simply a record of things seen, but a statement about the nature of painting and a more general (and distinctly uncalculated) comment about the glories of existence. Yet the essential mystery of the painting act remains: ‘I don’t know exactly what it is that I do in the studio’, he admits frankly.

Once at work on the canvas, the process is one of endless re- working as Carter explores the dialogue between the ostensible subject and the means of expression. As can be seen from even a cursory glance, Carter employs a purposeful and determined painterly attack, but he is also prepared to revise constantly, to change and re-engage. He comments: ‘I think everything in the studio is provisional.’

As he works on a painting, Carter will refer constantly to his drawings, which might include large charcoal studies, pastels and watercolours. The process of transforming the raw material of observation into the gold of the finished painting is the essential business of the studio. ‘I’m not sure I really get to grips with the location drawings’, he writes, ‘unless I have drawn from them in the studio. If I paint too directly from location drawings I think I tend towards too much of an 7. Light on Sea, 2011 (opposite) “impression” rather than inventing structures and possibilities.’ acrylic on canvas 3 1 100 x 110 cms 39 ⁄8 x 43 ⁄4 ins Although not abstract, these are pictures about paint and its

8. Drawing – 18 July, 2012 (above) formal disposition, the ways in which the orchestration of mixed media on paper 1 1 colour and line can be made to resonate in the human mind 21 x 21 cms 8 ⁄4 x 8 ⁄4 ins and heart. The (still) recognizable subjects give us an entrée 9. Drawing – Evening 30 July, 2012 (below) into the more mysterious activity of paint and what Carter is mixed media on paper 1 7 doing with it. He does not pursue an obvious realism in his 21 x 25 cms 8 ⁄4 x 9 ⁄8 ins work, but seeks the reality behind appearances – a deeper truth we normally apprehend but dimly, the ‘strange and numinous’, as he says, beyond ‘the familiar assumptions’.

In the finished painting, there are occasionally visible marks of squaring up. Carter does not begin a painting by squaring up a drawing to transfer to the canvas (such a procedure would be far too constraining for him – his activity on the canvas is essentially paint-led), but occasionally he does apply a scaffolding later in the evolution of the image in order to re-locate his subject in the cut-and-thrust of painting and altering. Vestiges of this geometric underpinning may or may not be noticeable in the finished picture, but if present are there because they form an integral part of the image, not because Carter didn’t bother to remove them. For him, the final version of the image which constitutes the painting should include traces of the history of its making, rather as a charcoal drawing retains the ghosts of those sections erased.

Although this may initially appear to be beside the point, Carter is an enthusiastic and skilful gardener, a passion he shares with the celebrated East Anglian artist-plantsmen, John Nash and Cedric Morris. As it was for them, his love of plants and their formal arrangement are activities which feed back into Carter’s painting, both in an understanding of natural processes and in the meaningful disposition of line and colour. Painting and gardening are mutually supportive.

10. Drawing - 16 May, 2012 (above) For Carter, colour is remembered but also arbitrary and mixed media on paper 1 invented. Quite often the colour verges on the artificial rather 21 x 23 cms 8 ⁄4 x 9 ins than the naturalistic, a painted equivalent to the experience 11. Study for ‘Figure and Yacht’ IV, 2012 (below) of looking at landscape, with one continuous plane of colour watercolour 1 7 24 x 25 cms 9 ⁄2 x 9 ⁄8 ins unifying the picture. Pink is a favourite, to complement an atmospheric and varied use of blue. Vibrant orange/red charges 12. Looking out to Sea, 2012 (opposite) across the winter sea or establishes the dynamics of falling acrylic on canvas 150 x 160 cms 59 x 63 ins rain. Turner lends inspiration to Looking out to Sea, after a visit Carter made to Margate. Previously, he tended to shunt the horizon line out of his paintings, fearing its domination, but now, working with increasing assurance, he is re-introducing it, even in the traditional position on the canvas. His paintings, like all good art, are a mixture of tradition and experiment.

However, the aim is not to be predictable. Carter wants to feel surprise at the painting when he comes into the studio in the morning, and so taking risks is an important aspect of what he does. ‘You learn not to rely on the things that you know’, he says. Much of the thinking occurs in the act of drawing or painting. Carter is not rehearsing preconceptions, but discovering new networks of form and colour to express a view of the world as a whole. The dynamic movement in these paintings is an exciting part of their appeal, particularly in the two versions of Light on the Sea, Light Breaking and the two versions of Light on the Sea (Easter). The distinctive softly jagged vectors and zigzag lines create space and vitality even though the palette is predominantly mixed greys – made from yellow ochre and ultramarine, for instance. Light Breaking is the exception here, employing a heightened use of colour and a superabundantly charged swirl of line to lasso the viewer’s attention. It is one of the finest paintings in a strong show.

These paintings are all about shapes. In Figure and Yacht II, the yacht’s sail appears above the man’s head, offering an 13. Winter Sea, 2012 (opposite) unmistakeable emphasis or accent that has something of the acrylic on canvas 1 120 x 150 cms 47 ⁄4 x 59 ins halo about it; also something of the vertical with crossbar which suggests the Crucifixion. Notice also the triangle of absence 14. (above) Study for ‘Winter Evening’ II, 2012 signifying the sail in Yacht and Rain. The yacht becomes 1 1 mixed media on paper 21.5 x 41 cms 8 ⁄2 x 16 ⁄8 ins interference in a sea of lines, negative space. The impressive

15. Study for ‘Winter Evening’, 2012 (below) structural logic of Carter’s paintings sometimes seems to lean mixed media on paper 5 1 towards sculpture, and for this body of work one sculpture in 27 x 31 cms 10 ⁄8 x 12 ⁄4 ins particular has been a lasting inspiration. This is David Smith’s Hudson River Landscape (1951), a welded painted steel planar sculpture of great linear inventiveness and elegance in the Whitney Museum, New York.

There’s also a series of 12 smaller square paintings, titled simply with the date of the last drawing from which the painting was made. Carter usually prefers an off-square format, but has settled nicely to the challenge of this more perfect shape. The square presents something to work against when painting landscape (traditionally depicted on a horizontal rectangle), and one characteristic solution sees Carter pinching in the sides of the image, so that it actually isn’t square even if the canvas is. His habit of constantly altering the image and scraping the paint back has resulted in some cases in a build-up of pigment at the right-hand edge of the canvas, but this becomes a valued part of the history (or archaeology) of the painting.

Carter is sometimes called an Expressionist, and his work does in a sense fit within the tradition of German Expressionism exemplified by such artists as Kirchner and Nolde, as well non-Germans such as Soutine and Bomberg. But there is no element in Carter’s work of Expressionist angst: he aims for a distinctly lighter and brighter touch. And his range of reference is far wider than this line of descent might suggest, drawing also upon de Kooning, the Pier + Ocean paintings of Mondrian, and the irreverent celebration of being alive to be found in the work of Roy Oxlade. (He refers to looking at de Kooning’s work as being ‘like opening an encyclopedia – everything you can do is 16. Fog I, 2012 (above) mixed media on paper there and you just have to look it up.’) Carter also finds much 3 1 30 x 24 cms 11 ⁄4 x 9 ⁄2 ins stimulation in the late pared-down figuration of Peter Kinley, in the long fluid abstract traceries of Brice Marden and the 17. Fog II, 2012 (below) mixed media on paper immense seascapes of Alex Katz. An influence closer to home 3 1 30 x 24 cms 11 ⁄4 x 9 ⁄2 ins is Paul Nash, and especially the great Dymchurch paintings, lightly referenced in Carter’s Promenade images. 18. Light on the Sea I (Easter), 2012 (opposite) acrylic on canvas 1 In recent years Carter has worked in close relationship with 140 x 160 cms 55 ⁄8 x 63 ins Constable, East Anglian forbear and master painter of weather and place. He has had two exhibitions in of paintings and drawings which explore the older painter’s relevance to his own work (Get Constable at Ipswich Town Hall Galleries in 2008, and Now and Then: Flatford Paintings, at Flatford Mill in 2012), and Constable remains an important presence in his artistic life. But whereas before Constable gave Carter a structure to improvise around, now the inspiration is more to do with atmospheres. Perhaps more important at the moment is a particular painting by Jacob van Ruisdael: An Extensive Landscape with Ruins (probably 1665-75) in the National Gallery. Carter has a photograph of this pinned up in his studio and constantly refers to it. Also in the studio are orderly shelves of dated sketchbooks, a copy of The Bible, a poetry anthology, a book on Gainsborough, and Seamus Heaney’s The Haw Lantern. A shelf of large art books includes monographs on Braque, Valasquez, Frans Hals, Augustus John, Diebenkorn, Manet, Sisley, Picasso, Delacroix and Vincent by Himself. Carter is eclectic in his tastes and interests, and this represents only a fraction of the art and literature he consults. (Mondrian, Matisse and , for example, are among the other artists he admires, while an enthusiasm for Munch was rather dampened by the recent exhibition.) He is also deeply interested in that maverick master of English mid-20th century abstraction, Roger Hilton. There is no obvious Hilton influence to be discerned in his work, yet there is a similar nervy sensitivity to Carter’s drawings – a line that stutters enquiringly rather than flows dictatorially. Both are artists who seek to unlock the visual mysteries of the world, rather than impose a vision upon it.

Haiku is another interest, the Japanese lyric verse form of sublime minimalism. The haiku is a three line poem consisting of only 17 syllables, in a strict pattern of 5, 7, 5 syllables per line. The form emerged in the 16th century, reached its peak between the 17th and 19th centuries, and has been much imitated since in the West. Carter is clearly influenced by the succinctness of the haiku and seeks to emulate its precision and compression in his own work. If not quite managing to reduce a drawing to three lines, it’s nevertheless amazing what he can say with a series of more or less freely painted parallel lines over a scumbled ground. In effect what he aims for is a simple set of marks that encompasses everything you see. Small task – vaulting ambition. In these new paintings, Simon Carter has made great progress towards achieving that very laudable aim. Andrew Lambirth Author and art critic 19. Fishing from the Beach, 2012 November 2012 acrylic on canvas 1 1 97 x 107 cms 38 ⁄4 x 42 ⁄8 ins 20. Cold Light, 4th April, 2012 (above) acrylic on canvas 5 5 50 x 50 cms 19 ⁄8 x 19 ⁄8 ins

21. 16th May, 2012 (opposite) acrylic on canvas 5 5 50 x 50 cms 19 ⁄8 x 19 ⁄8 ins 22. 12th June II, 2012 (above) acrylic on canvas 5 5 50 x 50 cms 19 ⁄8 x 19 ⁄8 ins

23. 12th June III, 2012 (opposite) acrylic on canvas 5 5 50 x 50 cms 19 ⁄8 x 19 ⁄8 ins 24. 20th July, 2012 (above) acrylic on canvas 5 5 50 x 50 cms 19 ⁄8 x 19 ⁄8 ins

25. Evening 30th July I, 2012 (opposite) acrylic on canvas 5 5 50 x 50 cms 19 ⁄8 x 19 ⁄8 ins 26. Evening 30th July II, 2012 (above) acrylic on canvas 5 5 50 x 50 cms 19 ⁄8 x 19 ⁄8 ins

27. 6th August, 2012 (opposite) acrylic on canvas 5 5 50 x 50 cms 19 ⁄8 x 19 ⁄8 ins 28. 25th September, 2012 (above) acrylic on canvas 5 5 50 x 50 cms 19 ⁄8 x 19 ⁄8 ins

29. 5th October, 2012 (opposite) acrylic on canvas 5 5 50 x 50 cms 19 ⁄8 x 19 ⁄8 ins 30. Fog, 22nd October, 2012 (above) acrylic on canvas 5 5 50 x 50 cms 19 ⁄8 x 19 ⁄8 ins

31. 8th November, 2012 (opposite) acrylic on canvas 5 5 50 x 50 cms 19 ⁄8 x 19 ⁄8 ins 32. A Bank of Clouds, 2012 (above) mixed media on paper 5 33 x 29.5 cms 13 x 11 ⁄8 ins

33. A Bank of Clouds with Figure, 2012 (below) mixed media on paper 3 33 x 30 cms 13 x 11 ⁄4 ins

34. Light Breaking, 2012 (opposite) acrylic on canvas 1 140 x 160 cms 55 ⁄8 x 63 ins 35. Dark Waves, 2011 (above) acrylic on canvas 5 1 60 x 70 cms 23 ⁄8 x 27 ⁄2 ins

36. Grey Afternoon Sea, 2011 (opposite) acrylic on canvas 5 1 60 x 70 cms 23 ⁄8 x 27 ⁄2 ins 37. Fog and Coloured Waves, 2012 (above) mixed media on paper 3 1 30 x 24 cms 11 ⁄4 x 9 ⁄2 ins

38. Winter Evening, 2012 (opposite) acrylic on canvas 3 1 100 x 110 cms 39 ⁄8 x 43 ⁄4 ins 39. Promenade, 2011 (above) acrylic on canvas 1 1 80 x 70 cms 31 ⁄2 x 27 ⁄2 ins

40. High Tide, 2011 (opposite) acrylic on canvas 1 1 80 x 70 cms 31 ⁄2 x 27 ⁄2 ins 41. Clouds over the Sea I, 2012 (above) mixed media on paper 1 1 42 x 42 cms 16 ⁄2 x 16 ⁄2 ins

42. Dark Figure and Pale Sea, 2012 (opposite) acrylic on canvas 1 1 97 x 107 cms 38 ⁄4 x 42 ⁄8 ins 43. Beach, 2011 (above) acrylic on canvas 1 1 80 x 70 cms 31 ⁄2 x 27 ⁄2 ins

44. Scrub, Huts and Sea, 2011 (opposite) acrylic on canvas 1 1 80 x 70 cms 31 ⁄2 x 27 ⁄2 ins 45. Clouds over the Sea II, 2012 (above) mixed media on paper 1 1 42 x 42 cms 16 ⁄2 x 16 ⁄2 ins

46. Winter Sea, 2011 (opposite) acrylic on canvas 5 1 60 x 70 cms 23 ⁄8 x 27 ⁄2 ins 47. Rain at Evening, 2012 (above) acrylic on paper 1 1 51 x 41 cms 20 ⁄8 x 16 ⁄8 ins

48. Rain at Evening, 2012 (opposite) acrylic on canvas 1 3 101 x 100 cms 43 ⁄4 x 39 ⁄8 ins 49. The Artist and the Sea I, 2011 (above) acrylic on canvas 1 1 70 x 80 cms 27 ⁄2 x 31 ⁄2 ins

50. The Artist and the Sea II, 2011 (opposite) acrylic on canvas 1 1 70 x 80 cms 27 ⁄2 x 31 ⁄2 ins 51. Clouds and Sea, 2012 (above) mixed media on paper 7 12.5 x 23 cms 4 ⁄8 x 9 ins

52. Yacht and Rain, 2012 (opposite) acrylic on canvas 1 3 101 x 100 cms 43 ⁄4 x 39 ⁄8 ins 53. Light on the Sea, 2012 (above) acrylic on canvas 5 1 60 x 70 cms 23 ⁄8 x 27 ⁄2 ins

54. Light on the Sea II (Easter), 2012 (opposite) acrylic on canvas 1 1 70 x 80 cms 27 ⁄2 x 31 ⁄2 ins 55. Winter Sea and Gulls, 2011 (above) acrylic on canvas 1 3 85 x 100 cms 33 ⁄2 x 39 ⁄8 ins

56. Artist and Grey Sea, 2011 (opposite) acrylic on canvas 1 1 70 x 80 cms 27 ⁄2 x 31 ⁄2 ins CCCXLI ISBN 978-1-908486-33-2 Publication No: CCCXLI Back cover (detail) Published by David Messum Fine Art Artist and Grey Sea, 2011 (catalogue no. 56) © David Messum Fine Art All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without the prior permission in writing from the publisher. Simon Carter The Studio, Lords Wood, Marlow, Buckinghamshire. Tel: 01628 486565 www.messums.com Born in Essex 1961 Photography: Steve Russell Printed by Connekt Colour

1980-81 Institute, Essex 1981-84 North East London Polytechnic

Selected Solo Exhibitions 2013 Messum’s, London 2012 Now and Then, Boat House Gallery, The National Trust, Flatford, Suffolk 2011 Borderlines, Messum’s, London 2010 Representation, The Cut, Halesworth, Suffolk 2010 On the road, Walton Fine Art, Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk 2010 Promenade, University of Essex 2010 7 New Paintings, Messum’s, London 2009 Simon Carter, Messum’s, London 2008 Get Constable, Town Hall Galleries, Ipswich, Suffolk 2006 Hampton Court Palace Show, including collaboration with designer Thomas Hoblyn on gold medal winning Volvo: the Artist’s Garden 2003 Another day on the beach, , Colchester, Essex

Selected Group Exhibitions 2012 Marmite Prize IV, exhibition touring nationally 2012 New East Anglian Painting, Ipswich Art School Gallery, Suffolk 2012 Toronto International Art Fair with Messum’s 2012 Bacon to Rego: Great Artists, Abbot Hall, Cumbria 2011 Toronto International Art Fair with Messum’s 2011 Sketch 2011, Rabley Drawing Centre, Wiltshire 2011 Contemporary Perspectives on Watercolour, Mall Galleries, London 2010 Threadneedle prize exhibition, Mall Galleries, London 2010 Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London 2010 Toronto International Art Fair with Messum’s 2010 East Coast Influences, Messum’s, London 2009 Mainly sky, North House Gallery, Manningtree, Essex 2008 East coast influences, Messum’s, London 2007 Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London 2007 Looking forward- 30 British artists, Agnew’s, London 2007 East coast influences, Messum’s, London 2005 Discerning Eye, London 2005 Stay, Great Eastern Hotel, London 2004 Painting is dead, long live painting. Hastings Museum and Art Gallery

Awards 2006 Grants for the Arts award, Arts Council England, East 2005 Escalator Visual Arts, Arts Council England, East & Commissions East Photograph: Noah Carter Noah Photograph: www.messums.com