Catalogue Foreword, by Lucy Pickford
Among the Trees is Rebecca Tucker’s first solo exhibition, bringing together a collection of recent paintings inspired by time spent observing and responding to the natural world.
The show at Aldeburgh Gallery in Suffolk, explores the interpretive landscapes of Tucker’s latest work showcasing her quiet reflections on the natural world. The show, made up of work ranging from miniatures to much larger work, creates a layered forest within the gallery, offering a moment of respite from the chaos of the world. Her paintings are a visual representation of those intangible feelings we have as we sit within a place - a moment of calm and connection in a disconnected world.
The selection of work in the show is an obvious stopping point in Tucker’s journey as an artist so far. Originally studying fine art in the mid-90s, her degree show explored landscape from an abstraction, a singular line denoting place. As her work has evolved over the years, she has explored a range of techniques but each series, while expanding her practice has been a refinement of an abstract interpretation of place, and an attempt to capture the resonance we feel as we build memories with each new location and journey.
The landscapes themselves are each chosen from Tucker’s own travels. Working from both an unintentional and intentional selection of places, each one draws similar conclusions from different angles. Her work presents as a memory, those places that we revisit time and time again, building and rebuilding a connection with a place through the people we take with us. Each place holds more of a feeling than a clear image. The more intentional subject choices are often places that are seemingly natural and full of greenery but are ultimately manmade, glasshouses and conservatories in cities and parks ranging from Kew and the Barbican, to Cambridge and Wisley, through to now farmed land over former battlefields in France. Each is a construction of nature by humans, its own abstraction of the natural world.
The skill in Tucker’s work lies in this balance between this abstraction and association. Each piece is removed enough from the original moment yet still has hints of connection within. This subtlety in the work is the key, there are small glimmers of the places but they are removed from their original context. Whether it’s a glazing pattern on a glasshouse or a species of tree that hints at the original location, each offers a new piece to the puzzle. She gives the viewer enough space to form their own view and interpretation of the place, ultimately taking their own journey through the locations in each work.
Tucker’s technique is integral to creating this feeling, the composition of each piece focusing on the absence, she paints the gaps between the leaves rather than the leaves themselves, adding a lightness to the work. The depth and balance of this connection and the abstraction extends further still to the material choice and presentation - working with acrylic on wood there is a softness lent to the work by the water-based paints, the translucency of a memory similar to the translucency of the lower layers. Looking closer still at the surface - in several works the grain of the wood comes through, offering both a direct and tangible connect to the nature itself in contrast to the opacity of the layers of white used for the light.
From the materials through the composition and choice of locations, the calm forest Tucker has created in a gallery in Suffolk is much more than a show about the natural world, it’s an expression of memory of a life lived among pockets of nature.
Lucy Pickford MA
Artist, curator and cultural consultant
Exhibition Catalogue
