By this River Archives -

From the Tamar to the Thames

Flanked by a church at either end, the Putney Bridge offers open views of the ebb and flow of the river Thames; its mud larkers scouring the banks for history’s hidden gems; the back and forth motion of the coxes preparing for the Championship course and an array of different coloured boats in mooring, swaying in time to the gentle lull of the water. The towers, cranes and traffic of London seem to recede into the distance, replaced by views of open sky, clouds and passing aeroplanes – all reflected in the ripples of water below. It’s almost as though you’re not in the city at all.

Just a few strides from the Putney Embankment, situated not far from one of Alan Thornhill’s Sculpture Trail artworks, can be found The Russell Gallery with its expansive windows, piquing the gaze of all who pass by.

Established as a predominately figurative gallery specialising in Modern British Art (think tasteful naïve-style still lives and gorgeous, tactile hand-scale bronzes) the abstract paintings of renown Cornwall based artist Heath Hearn and his partner Katy Brown are frequently on view. Currently hosting ‘By this River’, an impressive solo exhibition of Heath’s captivating work, the gallery glows from within as the energy of the Tamar river is brought close to the tidal flow of the Thames.

Swathes of colour, from bright piping hot cadmiums to dusty buffs and effervescent pale blues exude a charming calm and vapourish essence. Stepping into the Gallery you are instantly drawn to the fresh palette enfolding, like a meandering river, around deeper rusts and steely English green-greys.

Working from a studio which was once the cricketers’ tea room on the Mt Edgecombe estate on the Rame peninsula in south east Cornwall, Heath has a vantage point overlooking the Tamar estuary. Caught at the mid-point where salty tides meet the Tamar’s rush of fresh, peat-rich water flowing for some 60 miles from the granite-stippled, fearn-filled, lichen-specked Bodmin Moor, the Riverine watercourse is captured in the feel and tone of the exhibited paintings.

The airy pink pastels of ‘Veiled Landscape’ coat the compositional forms in velvet. Evoking the early morning dew little clouds of vapour lift like a mist exhaled from the flowing river, seeping across the formal parklands of Mt Edgcumbe. The central area of ‘River Blossom’ – a blurred amass of white, a little like lamb’s wool – appears laden with water droplets, the delicate blooms of spring rendered as though they have been exposed to the river’s chilly flicks of spray.

In works such as ‘Port Wrinkle’ the central frenzy of white brushstrokes is reminiscent of the frothy white caps whipped up by the ferocious of waves – you can almost feel the sea-spray settling on your face. The trailing rush of deep warm blue elopes around a current of white in ‘Warm River Breeze’. Heat and humidity coalesce as the river breathes its summer course.

The sizzling hue of ‘Cadmium Watermark’, offers a heightened impression of the heat of summer, the lighter pink tones tumbling downwards almost like a waterfall nearer the source of the waterway. A fine delicate line folds upwards in contrast to the lighter tone spilling forth, resonating with Robert Motherwell’s (1915 – 1991) ‘Open’ series.

The diagonal line splitting the central rectangle in in ‘Shoreline (RD)’ along with the sloping interlocking forms of ‘Canal and Flyover (RD)’ pay homage to Richard Diebenkorn’s ‘Ocean Park Series’ of the 1960 and 70s. Heath imbues scenes of Cornish river life with the diffused, glowing light of California transposing a sense of glamour borrowed from mid-century Santa Monica. Heath revisits Diebenkorn’s balanced compositions to reimagine the Tamar under the spell of the tradition of colour field Abstract Expressionism. And in ‘Morning Light’ Diebenkorn’s cityline along the Pacific Ocean is almost transported across place and time to an English estuary on a slightly overcast day with added echoes of the St Ives School.

This play of dialogue and style continues in the piece ‘Locked Gate’. Whilst the title suggests closure and curiosity about a forbidden area, the soft watery feel of the layers of paint and central slant of blue convey delicacy and wonderment. Time is required to see, look and fully appreciate the seductive subtleties in Heath’s work.

Having been involved in the Bay Area Figurative Movement, painting scenes of interiors, landscapes and still life, Diebenkorn returned to Abstraction in the 1960s. Unafraid to fulfil his own creative impulses, Heath also switches with dexterous fluidity between Figuration and Abstraction, shifting masterfully between the extremities of these two ranges so as to distil and capture the essence of his subjects.

With somewhat ambiguous titles such as ‘Tacking the River’ and ‘Penninsula and Cove’ many of Heath’s quasi-figurative works offer poetic descriptions of the riverine view and waterside activity, rather than providing specific locations and explanations.

Several works in the show echo one another. We observe how the curious elliptical shapes in ‘3 Boats’ almost form a painting within a painting and appear again in ‘3 Boats and a Bridge,’ their long narrow forms encouraging us to look at this scene once more so as to observe something different at the water’s edge – such as the introduction of the bridge shape in the background. Brunel’s Royal Albert Bridge spanning the Tamar is simplified, the symmetrically arched lenticular forms reimagined and translated into a symbol of a bridge, itself repeated in the eye-catching dart of canary yellow in ‘Water Under the Bridge’.

Gracing stage right in ‘Camping and Glamping,’ a quaint blue caravan makes a further entrance in ‘Camping and Glamping (in Plein Air).’ Both titles suggest that the camping and glamping is happening here and now; the Romance of the British holiday scene spilling out from the stately parkland of Mt Edgcumbe and combining with the London Arts Scene – from the banks of one river to another.

Heath’s honest and direct style is often linked to that of Ivor Hitchens (1893 – 1979) who fled Hampstead during the Blitz of the Second World War to the sanctity of a caravan pitched within 6-acres of woodland on Lavington Common, Surrey. Whilst the woodland provided much inspiration for Hitchens, we can almost imagine him feeling very much at home in Heath’s semi-abstract ‘Camping and Glamping’ caravan on the banks of the Tamar!

The thick blue brushstrokes worked into a grid-like pattern to denotate doors and windows contrast with the looser, more playful patches of colour reminiscent of the pools of yellow and purple in Hitchen’s own painting ‘Trees with Caravan.’ Yet in Heath’s painting, we are exposed to imaginary narratives of camping and Glamping (whatever the weather), rather than the holiday abodes acting as features within a landscape setting.

In ‘Shifting Sands’, which took centre stage upon an easel in the middle of The Russell Gallery on the day of my visit, the texture and application of paint echoes the very fluctuations in layers and levels of saturated sand falling and rising with the tidal surges at the river’s mouth. See that little seductive flash of yellow, to the right of the collapsing dune? Perhaps a child’s beach spade, or a glint of buried treasure?

As I break from my reverie on the banks of the Tamar and the coast of the Rame Peninsula to resume my route back across the Putney Bridge above the rushing rust-toned Thames below, I realise that in light of the current politicisation of the art world it has been restorative to see a London based gallery supporting an artist who has for the most part worked on the outside of the establishment. It is particularly refreshing to experience paintings conveying the joy and freedom of painting and the privilege of being alive and receptive to the beauty of light and nature and water. As much about the riverine environment and its many guises – industrial and pleasure based – this exhibition is a renewal of what painting has oftentimes been about, the very act of painting.

‘By This River’ continues at The Russell Gallery until the end of next weekend – be sure not to miss this tranquil daydream to Cornwall and a chance to purchase one of Heath’s expressive pieces on the banks of one river inspired by another!

You can view the e-book to the exhibition here:

Blurb Books

Heath Hearn’s website: Heath Hearn

The Russell Gallery Address:

12 Lower Richmond Road, Putney, London, SW15 1JP

Tel: 0208 780 5228

Email: ru************@*ol.com

Website: The Russell Gallery