Place | Tim Steward
Understanding a Landscape
“When space feels thoroughly familiar to us, it has become place.”
Artist Tim Steward is driven by – it seems to us – an immutable desire to study, digest and record. Often using whatever mark-making device is to hand, Tim offers his viewer the opportunity to see the places he sees. It takes dedication to mentally transport oneself from space to place, but to share the experience with others – regardless of whether they’ve physically visited the location in question – is no mean feat.
Tregardock #102 | Pastel, ink, sand and wax on paper | 30 x 24cm
Based on all that we’ve seen and know of the artist, it’s clear that Tim draws with the same fervour whether at the ocean’s edge, on the streets of Oxford, or in the studio.
At the time of writing, you’ll find Tim at a favourite spot in North Cornwall, tirelessly surveying Tregardock Beach and the changing Atlantic coast; the beach itself only revealed at low tide.
And surveying is the operative word here. For Tim initially studied Town and Country Planning at Cardiff University, before rerouting toward fine art. The two come together in the artist’s practice today, his knowledge and interest in urban design and building conservation feed into his drawing process, particularly in his Oxford series. The artist tells us his next challenge is to combine his Tregardock work with his love of capturing geometric details.
“It was always in my mind that I would work outside – in nature. It was not however my imagining that this would be as an artist. Growing up in the Chilterns I developed a love of the outdoors. I remember clearly, digesting a book called Faith in the Countryside by the Archbishop's Commission on Rural Areas, which made a real impression on me. It read as a vision for sustainable communities of the future, built on some of the wonderful vestiges of the past.”
The shift in focus from old buildings to towering cliffs was a natural progression for Tim and one that has allowed much room for experimentation. “Integral to this phase of work has been learning – both of what I am drawing, the plants and their seasonality, and also the external forces that affect my work: the tides, the changing light, where the sun rises and sets, and the history of the place.”
It’s through observations of everyday minutiae that Tim “naturally resonate[s] with the rhythms and preciousness of nature; small but important reminders of its vulnerability and its force …and the need above all to respect it…”
“Sometimes I’ve not even got down to the beach, but found myself entangled in the hedgerows, studying the plants, or trying to capture the colour of the sky from our lodgings. These moments recorded, no matter how roughly, nearly always become something, and over time they form the very marrow of my work.”
“Living and drawing in this part of Cornwall has only enhanced my love of the outdoors. Nature is so tangible here it becomes a part of you.” And you can most definitely feel this connection between artist and subject. Of all Tim’s work, his Tregardock series speaks to us the most, though we’re unable to grasp exactly why.
“The sea does not reward those who are too anxious, too greedy, or too impatient. To dig for treasures shows not only impatience and greed, but lack of faith. Patience, patience, patience is what the sea teaches. Patience and faith.”
Tregardock #97 | Oil and charred wood on board | 30 x 27cm
Of course, the artist’s process helps us to immerse ourselves in the series. The fact that he uses twigs, seawater, mud, clay, raw pigment… but there’s something more than that too, something intangible. Maybe it’s the artist’s need to get himself in the right – near meditative – mindset before embarking. Maybe it’s the constant changing of the weather’s mood, or the boundaries imposed by the tide. Maybe it’s the interaction of the elements with the work itself.
“Place is something more often sensed than understood.”
“There is something very humbling about being alone in such a vast landscape, and in truth everything in me can pull away when the weather is stormy, such is the intensity of the place. Still though I know I must feel the Earth beneath me and the elements around me… these last few years bits [have been] chipped off of me, and there remains a steep learning curve, but I feel enlivened by the experience. North Cornwall has become a place I love, and where I can find that wonderful sensibility that Keats talks about of ‘silence and slow time’.”
Artwork images © the artist | Used with permission | Banner image: detail of Tregardock #65 (condensed charcoal, ink, pencil & pigment on paper)
