For as long as I can remember, the planet on which we live has been a source of wonder and fascination to me.
Painting its scenic beauty for 25 years has been a delight. However, the will to advance my creativity by looking more closely at the natural environment, its dynamic forces and unpredictability, saw me return to education to widen my approach.
In 2019 I achieved my Masters Degree in Fine Art Contemporary Dialogues (distinction), from University of Wales Trinity Saint David, Swansea School of Art. This inspired, as I hoped it would, deeper exploration of these compelling subjects in a multitude of fresh ways. Using innovation, philosophy and an array of exciting materials in addition to paint, I have relinquished control, embraced new ways of looking and developed thought beyond representation. From ice-age geology on nearby Gower to vulnerable frozen habitats around the globe, I have awakened to the invisible within the visual.
an icy grip…
Participation in Polar expeditions over the years has strengthened my affinity for ice and a deep appreciation of the frozen world. This, combined with my keenness for materiality and process, sees my evolving work positioned where art meets science to reflect both the chaos of nature and man’s chaotic impact upon it. In seeking to develop a new visual vocabulary appropriate for the environmental conditions of today, I look to the sublime, ferocious and resilient natural world and the destructive legacy of industrialisation for creative scope.
Bringing together culturally discrete materials which react, stain, engage and reject provides atypical outcomes which I find hugely exciting. It reinforces the belief that transmutation from one state to another does not extinguish but simply alters the state of being. This conviction is pivotal as my work fundamentally explores the concept of absence and presence; particularly in respect of the need for greater recognition that human beings are a part of the world not apart from it.
painting on Half Moon island, South Shetland Isles, Antarctica
painting and more
representational paintings previously displayed at rowanhuntley.co.uk can be found at new location rowanhuntley.com
Painting has been my primary focus for more than 25 years and it has allowed me to explore the world in the best way possible. By providing both travel opportunities and insight into some of earth’s remotest places in addition to the remarkable British landscape, I have been extraordinarily lucky to gain valuable knowledge through first hand experience.
Working in such close proximity I have not failed to notice that from the vast ice-scapes of the Polar regions to the more modest glaciers of the Alps and our own coastline around Britain, change is afoot in an undeniably warming world. The fragility of our ecosystems is all too obvious as the ice melts and the seas rise and it saddens me greatly to think how such demise is generating unprecedented difficulties for future generations to face. If my years of painting have taught me anything it is to respect and value all that we are privileged to have. This planet is way bigger than the human species and we would do well to acknowledge more widely that it is in fact us, not it, who stand to lose when pitted against one another.
bridging the gap - art meets science
In my evolving creative practice my aim is to help bridge the chasm of disconnect between people and planet by bringing together contemporary art and science. Giving new perspective to some of the burning issues and groundbreaking research currently taking place around climate change contributes to education and is therefore, I believe, a positive and meaningful advancement of my work.
stormy weather at British Antarctic Survey’s Signy Research Station, South Orkney Isles, Antarctica