Sketches from Tresco

 Gallery Tresco Easter exhibition.

February, 2017.

The Scilly Isles have always been famed for their amazing colours and scenery – from the yellow of the beaches and the browns of the gorse to the blues and greens of the sky and sea. On Will’s most recent visit, this striking colour banding in the island skyline inspired him to create a body of work distinctly connected to Tresco island and its vistas.

Will's inspiration normally comes from certain objects or images, however this time he particularly wanted to create something that focussed out from the details and referenced the whole area in an abstract fashion, without any part of the scenery standing out more than any other. By working similarly to a painter with a palette of colours, the aim was to create pieces that are evocative of Tresco particularly but also the Scilly Isles as a whole.

I visited Tresco in February this year. The plan was to get inspiration for a range of work to go into the Easter exhibition in Gallery Tresco. Time was already a bit tight to produce a whole new body of work. I have been lucky enough to visit Tresco on a few occasions and I had been a little worried that the colours in February were not going to be that good. Nobody wants a range of work that reminds them of the winter. However the first few days the weather was glorious and the colours were.....inspirational. The views to the Eastern Isles were almost breathtaking - and nobody to spoil the view. Fabulous. My brother and his wife joined us for a few days and we happily walked around taking pictures, sketching and marvelling at our good fortune. And me getting...inspired. But then when we tried to get home, we couldn't. The weather closed in and we ended up stranded on Tresco. Now I know that there are worse places to be stranded, many worse places. However I really wanted to make this work and the deadline for the exhibition was looming. I know that I have a cast iron alibi - exhibition in the Tresco Gallery - stuck on Tresco! But gradually over a few happy hours in St Mary's airport a plan coalesced. I would get back in the workshop and spend the whole week just making pieces based on Tresco. The range would just have a single parameter - it had to evoke Tresco and the Scilly Isles. I decided that on the Sunday, I would start and just see where we would go. On the Friday we stopped and had a look at where we had actually gone. Just like Sketching.

I am really pleased with the result and feel inspired to work like this again.

And that's the lot. All these pieces are signed and numbered. I feel that these pieces are almost like "Artist's Proofs". I have really enjoyed this way of working and wonder why I have not done it before. Maybe that's the real inspiration, a different way of working. Thank you Tresco

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