Paul Lewin

This is a stunning exhibition.  These paintings are so evocative that they can give you vertigo.  Become a gull and soar over turquoise seas above granite cliffs.  Taste the salt in the air and fill your heart with the essence of Cornwall.
Paul Lewin has earned a reputation as one of Cornwall's leading landscape artists.  He seems to have captured Cornwall, bottled it and spread it out onto paper and canvas. He works in the landscape producing works in mixed media perched on the edge of cliffs or on top of wind blasted hills.

Laden down with materials his search for the perfect composition, the best light, the sense of place seems to be relentless and he finds it over and over again.

This is no easy way to make work and although Paul cites the usual suspects, Monet and other Impressionists as influences to the way he works he is also interested in the Abstract Expressionists, their wild use of paint.  Spend some time looking at Paul's work and you can see the skill with which he has applied pigment of all sorts to weave these stories of Cornwall that are his paintings.

What appears to be almost photographic from a distance is in fact the most skillful application of media that seems effortless which of course is part of the skill.  It takes years of dedication to be able to do what he has acheived.   Part of what he is doing by making these paintings is asking us to stop and look.  To see the glow of sand beneath the sea, to watch the softly undulating deep blue shadows of the cliffs on the water.  That is what we owe the artist and the landscape.  To this end he has made a series of soundscapes on his web site where you can look at the work while listening to the sounds that surrounded him as he made the painting. It slows us down, a few moments of stillness to really study and enjoy this wonderful work.

It is a joy to have the opportunity to get up close and personal with this work.  His exhibition is on from the 3rd until the 14th of September.  It is an exhibition not to miss and not something to dash past with a cursory glance, these paintings took time to make and deserve to be enjoyed for a lifetime.