Rob Davies’ semi-fictionalised landscapes are generous experiments. I was quite deeply connected to these watercolours,
These large scale, energetic watercolours on paper felt like – and I say this without being at all literal – I could have done them. Not because they were poor but because I could feel every brush stroke as though I was making it.
Watercolour can be like that. It’s transporting on many levels. We’re all deeply connected to water. We rely on it, but it’s also a positive influence through its ebb and flow, which can be captured distinctly with watercolour pigment.
Most artists, probably most people, have attempted to paint with watercolours at some point. So we’re all familiar with how they feel. We all understand how diluting pigments, whether they’re wet or dry, can deeply affect their impact on paper. We’re not, or I’m not, remotely adept at using it though.
It’s similar to watching tennis. You’re probably not very good at it, but you know the weight of the ball, and the feel of a racket pretty instinctively. Occasionally, you’ll watch somebody else, and feel connected to their swing.
This is that, but in painting form. Rob Davies’ watercolours offer their viewers an escape not just into their landscapes, but into the act of creating those landscapes.
The landscapes themselves (now I’ve tried to dig myself out of the ‘I could have done that’ hole), are soft, but bold. Their scale alone is enough to stop you in your tracks, and, just to add to the physical connection to the works, they are mounted plainly to the walls of Birkenhead’s biggest gallery, as sheets of unframed paper.
The ripples, curves, and bends of the paper, speak to the moisture of the paints as they set and dried. They add to the landscapes, offering yet more depth to the wildernesses of the everyday landscapes, and blurring the perspectives on the more exceptional rural spaces.
I was speaking to a group of artists this month, who were expressing interest in the idea that materials co-author our work. And while material and scale are critical to the success of this work, it’s quite clear that this isn’t their work.
These paintings are the product of one artist making decisions on behalf of his materials, to produce work that, by virtue of those materials, offers a physical and spiritual connection to the paintings, and the process of making them.
It seems relevant then, that many of the works are combinations of imaginary spaces, inspired by fiction and science fiction, and real life landscapes, drawn from remarkable rural scenery and everyday urban spaces.
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Rob Davies Watercolours is open at Williamson Art Gallery & Museum until 26th August 2023
