After last week's mention...
Week 11's colours are Green Gold, Peach, Paynes Grey & Purple Haze
When I researched Eileen Agar who was featured last week, my attention was drawn to Paul Nash. The two met in 1934 whilst on holiday in Dorset and remained in contact with many of their postcards and letters to each other now in the Tate Museum.
Nash (1889-1946) transformed British landscape painting by bringing Modernist and Surrealist elements to traditional scenes. His artistic journey began with romantic landscapes but evolved dramatically following his experiences as an official war artist during both World Wars.
After training at the Slade School he served in the First World War before being wounded and continuing as an Official War Artist. His work from the frontlines, particularly We Are Making a New World (1918) and Totes Meer (1941), remain some of the most memorable images of conflict with their haunting landscapes of broken trees and desolation.
Between the wars, Nash developed a distinctive style that merged Surrealism with his deep connection to the English landscape. He co-founded the art group Unit One in 1933 which championed Modernism in British art and included Barbara Hepworth, Henry Moore and Ben Nicholson amongst it’s members.
During the Second World War, air raids were an increasing threat and Nash told of how he watched the skies for blossoming parachutes, often holding aloft munitions and not just airmen.
“I strained my eyes always to see that dreadful miracle of the sky blossoming with these floating flowers.” - Paul Nash
These images contributed to the painting featured today, Flight of the Magnolia which also depicted a blossoming magnolia and an unusual cloud formation.
Already in poor health due to severe asthma, the painting was linked to Nash’s own feelings of mortality. He was known for his depictions of aerial combat, such as Battle of Britain (1941) but due to his condition had never been in an aeroplane.
Nash died in 1946 from heart failure resulting from his asthma. Apart from his fine art, he was also a book illustrator, an applied artist involved in set design and a designer of fabrics and posters. His younger brother was John Nash, also well known for being a war and landscape artist.
Read more about Nash here (includes a video) and in a 2016 review of his retrospective here.
I’ve chosen colours from Nash’s preliminary sketch for Flight of the Magnolia and have included it together with the final artwork.
‘Flight of the Magnolia’, Oil on canvas, Paul Nash, 1944
Colour Combination
The chosen colours are Green Gold, Peach, Paynes Grey & Purple Haze. Use them together with neutral lights and darks to create an artwork in any medium or style.
As always, I love seeing what you’ve created. If you’re posting on Instagram, please tag #coloricombo and #estemacleod and join us in the private Facebook group Creative Prompts.
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