Transcendent Vista’

PRESS RELEASE – For immediate release
Duo show of Works from British artists Gill Rocca and Simon Andrew – ‘Transcendent Vista’
Opening on Thursday, October 13th 2018. 5 to 8 pm. At Duran Mashaal Gallery - Exhibition continues till Saturday, November 3rd

Duran Mashaal is proud to present the works of British artists Gill Rocca and Simon Andrew. Both specializing in obscure landscapes of imagined sceneries, the artists portray these moody landscapes each in a distinctive and particular way. Gill Rocca’s ‘works are executed in oil, varying in scale from intimate miniatures on resin and wood to large scale paintings on canvas.

Inspired by the realism of film and photography, the paintings attempt to create a dreamlike tension between reality, memory and the imagination. Always uninhabited, shrouded in mist or captured as night draws in, the scenes pictured suggest an unspoken, unfinished narrative. The glow of streetlights or road markings act as traces in the paintings, often disappearing into the distance to merge again into empty space.'

Although Simon Andrew does paint landscapes en-plein air in Canada and during his visits in England, he also creates extraordinary landscapes in the studio by using what he refers to as his “distilling process.” He explains, “When I go to a place and come back to the studio and am painting from my memory of that scene, I remember only what was really important to me and forget all the small, insignificant details. My focus is only on what’s important to me. This process of relying on memory—of recent or long ago—serves to distill the painting experience into solely what I found interesting. Superfluous bits and pieces are forgotten, yielding to what was especially relevant to me when I looked at the scene.’