14 Comments
Sep 4Liked by Samantha Clark

Beautiful descriptive writing about these paintings, and thank you for the beautiful poem. I saw some of her Orkney work at the Scottish Gallery in Edinburgh last year, not long after I’d returned from Orkney. People may like to know that there is a video by the Scottish gallery of Victoria making the print Burnished by a low winter sun. The link is easy to find - I think it’s now on utube. I so enjoy reading your weekly musings.

Expand full comment
author

Yes these paintings are worked up from that material, but the Moon Series and other drawings and sketchbooks from that show are also included here. Fascinating to see the progression of ideas…

Expand full comment
Sep 4Liked by Samantha Clark

Would love the sketchbooks

Expand full comment
author

She said in her talk that the only things she would rush to save from a fire are her sketchbooks....

Expand full comment
Sep 4Liked by Samantha Clark

There’s something so poignant/evocative about horizons. And especially at sunset/sunrise. ✨

Expand full comment
author

Yes, that moment when everything is about to change....🌅

Expand full comment

Thank you for introducing me to this artist. Her Blue snow and Fiery Trees is my favorite, although the seascapes are mesmerizing too. You write beautifully about her artwork and the poem as well, which adds so much to the pleasure of viewing them. Like you, I love to write about the art that moves me, finding I discover so much in the process about what it is that moves me, and about the artwork itself.

Expand full comment
author

Yes, that’s absolutely my expereince too, Deborah…I get so much more out of art once I have sat down and thought it through in words, connected it to other ideas or poetry or art, and worked out why it moved me in the first place. And those fiery trees are spectacular, as is that whole series of works from that period.

Expand full comment
Sep 4Liked by Samantha Clark

Hi Samantha! I am sure I’m not the only viewer today that sees Victoria’s influence on your art works. The role of your horizon to exert strong influences on “what you see” makes perfect sense. Here on the northern Gulf Coast of Florida, there is so little to compete with the ocean, dunes for the most part, that my experience of the horizon is lacking a reference except for scarce barrier islands. I so enjoyed your lesson today, Sam.

Expand full comment
author

Perhaps it’s more the case that we are both responding to this same environment - since the sea horizon only appeared in Vicky’s work once she got to Orkney, as it did in mine. The islands here are mostly low-lying. With little in the way of trees and no mountains, this is a landscape of wide horizons and softly undulating land, with few verticals except the fenceposts. The horizon dominates, as it seemes, it does for you. I’m so used to it now that when I’ve been away for a while, when get back to the north, the trees recede and the hoizons open up, I breathe a sigh of relief…space again.

Expand full comment
Sep 4Liked by Samantha Clark

I enjoyed reading that, Sam. Would love to see this show in the beautiful Pier gallery.

Expand full comment
author

Thanks Jan. It’s a beauty, and the perfect space for it…

Expand full comment

Victoria's paintings are beautiful, thanks for sharing

Expand full comment

So much to love about your writing, Sam. Above, I find this image quietly poignant: “light on the cusp of darkness——- Those words, too, are “hauntingly beautiful.”

Expand full comment