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Julie Aldridge at the opening of her show at Anam Cara in Eyeries

Landscape as Icon – New work by Julie Aldridge reviewed by Dr John Goode Director of Mill Cove Gallery. Photograph supplied by John Eagle :-)

An island in southwest Crete and the Beara Peninsula, where she lives, inspire Julie Aldridge’s exhibition. These two different locations share the same orientation and a quality of light that she explores in this work.

The Icon as an image is a sign or likeness that stands for an object by signifying or representing it. In Eastern Orthodoxy and other icon-painting Christian traditions it is generally a flat panel painting depicting a holy being. This symbolism allowed the icon to present highly complex material in a very simple way, making it possible to educate people, even the illiterate, in theology. With this work Julie explores the landscape as icon and presents the landforms of the Beara peninsula and Elafonisi, in Greece, in an abstract manner encouraging the viewer to bring their own interpretation to her work. She gently presents her work by using gold, collage and other reflective substances to create scenes with close tonal values.  This medium encourages one to see beyond her surface gestures to explore the work more closely, giving it an intimacy not apparent on a cursory view.

John Constable said that ‘Landscape is another word for feeling’. Aldridge uses her work to translate her natural world into a personal vision of subjective relevance. Yet she allows this vision to have a wider appeal. The work has a direct relationship with specific landscapes, giving it an individual dimension however once again the work is comprehensible by not attempting any literal representation. This fluctuation between the intimate and the accessible gives the feeling of discovering something confidential without being intrusive.

Her landscapes are investigated from different aspects in this exhibition and they appear to document a journey of self-awareness, but this is not their prime motivation. Aldridge is committed to imparting a voracious impression of the landscape’s energy to affect the senses. Her preoccupation with her subject illustrates her devotion to creating work that pays homage to the land.

Related Links within Virtu - Art

• Mill Cove Gallery Castletownbere
• Tim Goulding Beara Peninsula
• John Eagle Art Beara