Andrew Gifford A Baltic Journey Andrew Gifford A Baltic Journey 21 November – 20 December Painting through Russia, Finland and Sweden John Martin Gallery 38 Albemarle Street London W1S 4JG www.jmlondon.com Painting on the frozen river Neva...it was beautiful out there on the snow. The sky turned ochre yellow and the snow glowed electric cyan. St Petersburg, February 2019 Murmur, 2017 charcoal and paper laid on board 24 x 24 inches, 61 x 61 cms Cathedral of SS. Peter and Paul, St Petersburg oil on panel 14¼ x 13½ inches, 36 x 34 cms Across the Snowy Park towards the Church of the Saviour, February oil on panel 11¾ x 12¼ inches, 30 x 31 cms Twilight Towards the Church of the Saviour, February oil on panel 11¾ x 12¼ inches, 30 x 31 cms I wandered around the centre of St Petersburg this morning. The sky thick and pregnant with snow...its belly sagging over the skyline so heavy and grey but full of all those magical purples, greens and ochres that make you so excited when you look out of your bedroom window as a kid and contemplate a day off school. That’s what I tried to paint, those colours...all the rivers are frozen and for my first study I tried to paint the vast expanse of frozen ice with the city skyline sandwiched and compressed between this and the dense sky... Across the frozen River Neva towards the Hermitage, February oil on panel 13¼ x 13¾ inches,38 x 35 cms Smoln’yy Sobor, St Petersburg oil on panel 12¼ x 11¾ inches,31 x 30 cms The Monestary, Pushkin oil on panel 8¼ x 8¼ inches, 21 x 21 cms I painted all afternoon following with an evening one of the same view...my fingers and feet started to freeze after the third hour. in fact the meltwater puddle I was standing in actually froze around my feet, as the temperature dropped when the sun went down... Church of the Saviour, Through the Trees, Last Sunlight, St Petersburg oil on panel 11¾ x 12¼ inches, 30 x 31 cms Church of the Saviour, Through the Trees, Twilight, St Petersburg oil on panel 11¾ x 12¼ inches, 30 x 31 cms Church of the Saviour Through the Trees, Last Sunlight, St Petersburg oil on canvas 45 x 43 inches, 114 x 109 cms Snowy Canal at Night, St Petersburg, February oil on panel 9¾ x 10¼ inches, 25 x 26 cms House near Pushkin oil on panel 13½ x 14¾ inches, 34 x 36 cms The snow is just drifting around everywhere. This is a sacred chapel...The blanket of white covering every headstone, every twig seems to suck the sound out, making it still and completely silent...it's an amazing place to paint but the paint is now just congealing, turning granular and icy, everything's got snow on it and it's almost impossible so I'm just sculpting the paint on with a palette knife. Chapel of St Xenia, Through the Trees, Heavy Snow, February oil on canvas 13¼ x 13¾ inches,38 x 35 cms Chapel of St Xenia, Through the Trees, Heavy Snow oil on canvas oil on canvas 53 x 54 inches, 135 x 137 cms Hired a driver to take me out of St Petersburg today and spotted a small village of brightly coloured dachas. The village seemed empty, one or two deep tracks but the snow was so thick that cars and log piles were just beautiful white forms moulded together. The sky was clear, crisp and everything was impossibly bright. Thick snow on every branch, powdery cold, utterly still and silent, like the place had been suspended in time. I painted a green dacha standing in two feet of snow with the tower blocks of St Petersburg far in the background like another world. Green Dacha, St Petersburg, February oil on panel 19¼ x 19¾ inches,49 x 50 cms Towerblocks from Pulkovskiy Park, St Petersburg, Late Afternoon, March oil on panel 29½ x 28¾ inches, 75 x 73 cms This is the last painting of my visit to Russia. Probably quite fitting that I'm in a blizzard surrounded by churches and tower blocks. I worked on it for an hour in the snow. Then the street lights came on and everything went mauve and ridiculously beautiful... Towerblocks from Pulkovskiy Park, St Petersburg,Dusk oil on panel 29½ x 28¾ inches, 75 x 73 cms North Star, 2019 acrylic on paper 19¾ x 15¾ inches, 50 x 40 cms Church in Pulkovskiy Park, Near St Petersburg, March oil on canvas 53 x 54 inches, 134 x 137 cms Second Church in Pulkovskiy Park, Near St Petersburg, March oil on canvas 53 x 54 inches, 134 x 137 cms The weather has turned serious here...a foot of snow today...incredibly beautiful but almost impossible to paint in, even painting under shelter doesn't work as the snow blows in and mixes with the paint freezing it on the palette.. I’m learning to paint straight from the tube...but it is hard to get it to stick to the board ... Moscow, March 2019 Towards Kotelnicheskaya, Night, Moscow oil on panel 12¼ x 11¾ inches, 31 x 30 cms Green Church Through the Trees, Moscow oil on panel 12¼ x 11¾ inches, 31 x 30 cms Snowy Park, Moscow oil on panel 12¼ x 11¾ inches, 31 x 30 cms ABOVE, Bolotnaya Park, Twilight, Moscow oil on panel, 11¾ x 12¼ inches, 30 x 31 cms TOP, Towards St Basil’s, Snow. Moscow oil on panel, 11¾ x 12¼ inches, 30 x 31 cms Church in a Moscow Suburb, March oil on panel 13½ x 13¾ inches, 34 x 35 cms Driving into the lake region from Lappeenranta, I was shown an isolated spit of land named Kylaniemi. It was a truly idyllic place with a beach and the clearest water of perfect swimming temperature, so far removed from the icy wilderness that it would become in six months time... I made my way into the wooded spit of land with my paints. Looking east, the last rose-golden beams of sun drenched the trees in a rich orange veil, the pine trunks changing from purples through to cobalts with fiery oranges towards the tops. After painting this I swivelled around on the huge mossy boulder that I was sitting on to attempt to paint the view west, squinting into the intense sunset. This painting was about trying to capture the blinding nature of the light - I worked by glancing at the subject and using my hand as a shield, the trees looking blood red as the blazing light of the sun and its reflection burned through the gaps. Finland, July 2019 Kylaniemi, Saimaa Region, Looking East oil on panel 15¼ x 9¾ inches, 39 x 25 cms Kylaniemi, Saimaa Region, Looking West oil on panel 15¼ x 9¾ inches, 39 x 25 cms Travelled to the Saimaa Lakes, a short distance from St Petersburg now, linking my winter paintings. It’s a very wild region covered in birch and pines. This place is special for its lakes..such pure water. We seem to have hit the heat wave here so plenty of light... Lake Ahoselkä, Saimaa Region, Late Afternoon oil on panel 13½ x 14¼ inches, 34 x 36 cms Lake Ahoselkä, Dusk, July oil on panel 4½ x 4¾ inches, 11 x 12 cms Lake Ahoselkä, Late Dusk, July oil on panel 4½ x 4¾ inches, 11 x 12 cms Cottage in Saimaa, Finland, July oil on panel 9¼ x 10¼ inches, 25 x 26 cms House over the River at Porvoo, Finland, July oil on panel 9¾ x 10¼ inches, 25 x 26 cms Evening Light in Hay Meadow, Saimaa Region oil on panel 11¾ x 12¼ inches, 30 x 31 cms Pines, 4 am, Lappeenranta oil on panel 10¼ x 9¾ inches, 26 x 24 cms Pines in Sunlight, Early Morning, Lappeenranta oil on panel 14¼ x 13½ inches, 36 x 34 cms I found this view over Stockholm last night. I knew the light would be interesting because the sun was setting in a fairly cloudless sky and a storm was coming in from the east. It got so intense you could see the rain coming down in the golden light, then a strange linear rainbow appeared over the city. As all this was going on and I was frantically painting, lots of girls arrived and had a full on champagne and balloon 21st birthday party next to me dancing to ABBA on a speaker...surreal. Then the rains came... which I was under prepared for and froze. I had intended to make two paintings , one of the city at night, but had to bail for a hot shower and some smoked reindeer... Stockholm, September 2019 View over Stockholm, Rain Coming (detail) oil on panel 11¾ x 12¼ inches, 30 x 31 cms Towards Nybroplan, Stockholm, Golden Light oil on panel 11¾ x 12¼ inches, 30 x 31 cms Restaurant at Dusk, Stockholm, September oil on panel 15¾ x 13 inches, 40 x 33 cms Restaurant at Night, Stockholm, September oil on panel 15¾ x 13 inches, 40 x 33 cms Ten minute sunset oil sketch...pretty frantic. I arrived when the sun was an inch above the horizon, loaded the palette up in record time and used every brush I had because I didn’t have time to clean them between mixing...the sun had gone in ten minutes..