'White Water' — Fenland Rivers and Minimalist Painting

The rivers of the Cambridgeshire Fenlands move slowly — too slowly, in most conditions, to produce the white water of upland streams and rapids. And yet there are moments, particularly after heavy rain or when the sluices are opened, when the water moves with a speed and energy that is quite at odds with the usual character of the landscape. 'White Water' was made in response to one such moment — an observation of the River Great Ouse in flood, its surface broken and turbulent, its colour changed by the suspended sediment it carried.

Minimalism and the Fenland

The Fenland landscape has a natural affinity with minimalist painting. Its flatness, its limited palette, its reduction of the landscape to a few essential elements — sky, water, land — make it a subject that invites a restrained, economical approach. In 'White Water', the minimalist tendency is pushed further than usual: the composition is reduced to the simplest possible elements, and the palette is almost monochromatic.

The aim is not to depict the river in any descriptive sense but to evoke the quality of the water — its movement, its energy, its particular quality of light — in paint. The cold wax medium is well suited to this: its matte finish and its capacity to hold subtle tonal variations within a limited palette allow for a kind of atmospheric painting that is difficult to achieve with oil paint alone.