Introduction

It is hard not to love our landscape. Yet we are always just passing by. Helena Traill’s work in ‘en plein air’ allows us to glimpse how the artist experiences and absorbs the essence, the form, the very spirit of the land. Through light, colour and shadows, through stillness and movement, the eye of the artist allows us to find new meaning in familiar places and introduces us to drama and beauty that it is so easy to miss.

There are echoes of Sisley, Pissarro and Monet in these glorious works but there is something stronger and braver in their inherent beauty. Helena brings an instinctive understanding of the power of light and its influence on colour that can only be found by braving the elements. The reward is a delight to the eye. 

When Gauguin first visited the artist colony at Pont-Aven and worked ‘en plein air’ in 1886 he too discovered exciting new colours and a new language that would serve him well in the post-impressionist world. Charmouth (No. 27–30) and Frensham (No. 47–51) bring to mind David Bomberg's 1946 visit to the Estuaries of the Taw and the Torridge in North Devon all executed ‘en plein air’.

Famously Monet was affronted when asked during a visit to Vétheuil by the respected editor of La Vie Moderne to show his studio. His reply with a sweeping gesture to the river Seine and the surrounding landscape – “This is my studio”. 

Welcome to the studio of Helena Traill.

Ashley Gray
Director
Gray M.C.A