BRIAN HANSCOMB RE

Brian’s pastel works are mainly figurative and many are an outcome of his frequent walks and cycle rides around his locality of Bodmin Moor with its changing and dramatic cloud formations. Trees have featured in his more peaceful, ZEN inspired meditative work as in ‘Tree & Distant Tor’ and 'The Three Trees II' while the dramatic skyscapes above the moor appear in works such as 'Quarry & Cumulus' and 'Skyscape over North Cornwall II'. Occasionally, seascapes appear as in ‘Red Boat and Stormclouds II’ while a visit to Kent led to 'Abandoned Fuel Tank – Dungeness', an eerie shingled beach scene with again, a dramatic skyscape

At times, Brian uses a variety of papers, some handmade, including a favourite Nepalese paper which is sometimes used as a collage on top of another, maybe smoother, paper, giving contrasting, broader colour fields as in 'Pool near the Wood I' and 'Pool near the Wood II'. At other times, the paper can be covered with up to 8 layers of pastel, highlighting any raised texture as well as scratchmarking to reveal shapes, symbols and an underlying colour as in 'Norfolk Church – High Summer I'.

Brian has also been drawn to using saturated colours, together with various metallic leaf such as a range of golds and palladium (which creates a non-tarnishing silver) as in 'Jacob’s Ladder II'. He may also use gold and metallic leaf together with pastel and pencil to create simple geometric images as shown in his series inspired by the Burren Country in County Clare, Ireland, seen on a springtime visit. A fusion of sea and land is apparent in these works, as is a feeling of spiritual ascension, notably in ‘Burren Eventide III’, the last of the series.