Luke Elwes
Compass: New Paintings
8 September - 7 October 2004
Main Gallery

Like points on a compass, the images in Luke Elwes's new paintings move the eye backwards and forwards, between open sky and dark earth, the sea of sand the the sea of water. They track the ground that runs between presence and absence, navigating home ground or distant, unfamiliar territory.

This is Luke's fourth exhibition with Art First. A new departure in the recent work is evident in a beautiful group of mixed media paintings on paper. These throw fresh light on the subtle layering of washes and the marks of elemental mapping in the large canvases, which themselves re-visit the discoveries he made in the paintings for Pilgrim (based on an expedition to Mount Kailash and Lake Manasarovar in Tibet), Sanctuary (derived from a journey to the cave complexes in Cappadocia, Central Turkey) and Osea (an island only a few hours drive from London).