Nature Refocused: Water and Woodland

About

The Red Door Gallery is pleased to announce a new exhibition hosted by Scarlett Woodman and Hannah Buchanan. This follows their first collaboration, Nature Refocused, exhibited at the Red Door in September 2020, which showed both artists' love for the Kent countryside and their exploration of the landscape during lockdown. This new exhibition, Nature Refocused: Water & Woodland, marks the artists' transition in their work from exploration to development, as they attempt to find a deeper connection with the landscape and celebrate their surroundings in the South-East through a refined focus in technique and subject matter.

Scarlett Woodman (b. 1994) collects both her imagery and her materials from her surrounding landscape. Through this process of exploration and discovery Scarlett reflects upon our relationship with the natural world. Being in lockdown allowed her to spend a great amount of time out in the Kent countryside around her home and consequently helped her to achieve a better connection and understanding of that environment. By celebrating this in her work, she hopes that the viewer will be inspired to pay more attention and care to their own surroundings. Scarlett uses a combination of both constructive and destructive processes in her practice including painting, drawing, scratching and burning. Working mostly with reclaimed building materials, the result is always a softening; taking these hard, harsh, heavy objects salvaged from the landscape, and transforming them with trailing branches into something that appears serene and delicate. Finding peace in the wilds of nature and displaying not only its strength, beauty and resilience, but also its fragility.

Predominantly a landscape painter, Hannah Buchanan (b.1997) is stimulated by the impermanent nature of the seasons and an interest in Biocentrism. Through oil paint, she aims to record the pulses of life emanating in the natural environment, whilst also portraying a sense of experience, memory and emotion in the colour palette and texture of the painting. She enjoys painting in a greenhouse as her studio, as she is inspired by the greenery around her that is constantly changing through the seasons. Hannah's recent work has evolved to bring emphasis on certain elements such as skies and water. She finds inspiration in these chosen elements as they bring a sense of tranquillity and stillness, something she strives to emanate through her landscapes.

Scarlett and Hannah hope this exhibition will continue the conversations started by all those who had chance to rediscover and reconnect with their surroundings during the pandemic. Now, as life resumes and transitions to normality, they feel it is important that the lessons learnt during this time are not forgotten but are carried forward. As ever, their practices start with similar subjects but end with very different results. They both believe this highlights the endless possibilities of the exploration and discovery of the natural world. Their work will ever aspire to act as a reminder and a pure celebration of the beauty of nature, without forgetting its fragility and the responsibility we all have to protect it.