instagram @maryanneaytounellis
twitter @AytounEllis
My work takes its inspiration from the natural world and in particular from the fields, woods and hedges near my home.
I paint in egg tempera, mixing the colours and applying them in many layers and glazes intermixed with intense passages of detailed pencil drawing, watercolour and pen and ink. It is a very personal technique – what I depict in my paintings is inextricably entwined with how it is depicted.
My work always evolves from loose, abstract beginnings in which I have no pre-conceived idea or composition, allowing myself to be guided by the resulting marks and images which begin to emerge. This is my ‘way in’ to a landscape, where process, materials and subject matter are all emergent and equally dependent on each other, rooted in impression rather than emulation. It is how I tap into a deep-rooted feeling for the landscape which is not only my own but comes from the generations of my family who have farmed and worked on the land.
I am acutely aware of the changing nature of the land as it faces such immense pressures from urbanization and global climate change. But equally I am aware, and always in search of, its unchanging and persistent qualities.