Alone With Trees, Part II: Andrew Gifford

In December 2020, the gallery presented Alone with Trees by Andrew Gifford for their first show at Cromwell Place. Gifford’s paintings of woodland, first began in 2018 and concluded after a period of intense activity during the first lockdown and through to the early autumn, had a remarkable impact on an audience many of whom had found a similar sanctuary in woods during their own lockdown year. However, the exhibition marked only a moment in the continuing evolution of the artist’s project.  He resumed his work in the new year as freezing weather and heavy snowfall hit the south of England and through which he produced an intense series of winter paintings later developed into larger canvases during the spring.

During the summer and autumn Gifford’s paintings became preoccupied with smaller elements within the woods; on sprays of hawthorn blossom and the leaf tips on branches, as if he set out to immerse himself ever deeper into the trees themselves.  During the process Gifford remarked how he felt driven to test himself, choosing subjects so complex that they were almost unreadable and where he had to rely on broad gestures of applied paint to describe the dense layers of light, as well as the textures and dampness that overwhelmed his field of vision. The final paintings, as well as all the studies from 2021 will be shown for the first time in four gallery spaces at Cromwell Place opening on 30 November.