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Christopher P Wood by Ian Skelly What does a painter paint when he paints a landscape, the landscape or his Soul? If a painting "works" then the image is certainly more than just the outer description. It resonates at a deeper level. Even so, in this age that does not believe in Soul, it is bold indeed to abandon that outer form altogether and explore only what lies beneath. Yet that is what Christopher Wood has sought to do in the decade this show describes.He paints honest paintings. Look at them as you might those by Giorgione or Giotto, those early Italian Renaissance Masters. They were far from descriptive. They conjured images from a vast mythology of the heart, seeing the artist at the interface between two worlds, enabling the invisible to become visible. Chris Wood works in this same, neglected tradition, exploring the collective dream but he lives in a very different world from theirs. So the same simplicity in his images stands in stark contrast and challenges the rampant ego-mania of our day. Christopher was born and bred in Leeds as individualism tightened its grip on our outlook. As it reached those new heights in the eighties he studied in London alongside the stags who would soon become the emperors of Nineties Modern Art. Early on he sensed their clothes were thin and in a break that took some guts he left their self-perpetuating maelstrom and returned to his roots to tread his own path, to hone what is now a refined technique and to speak with his own voice. Some twenty years on his technique is still unfashionable, depending, as it does, upon skill and craft. He takes great care to prime his canvases, often four times over, and blends his paints in special ways to produce the satin finish to his skies. He also builds his pictures in such a way that once begun each must be finished in a single sitting which creates a tension that is emotionally draining. And the voice? It speaks of reality as rooted in the spiritual realm. It explores that level of experience which is unfettered by the outer metering of time and space in landscapes which echo an archaic depth and luminous mystery. They resonate with symbols and strange eminences. They are the places where thoughts arise. High above the rooftops of semi-detached suburban Leeds, Wood continues to open his brightly coloured windows onto the world within this world in the hope that treasure may be found. They invite a journey to be made and offer communion with the miracle of wonders we call Creation. Questions will find their answers in the quiet contemplation of them. For when this painter paints his landscapes, he paints of the marvels. Ian Skelly, 2007 writer and broadcaster |
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