Page 6 - Art First: Bridget Macdonald: Arcadia

At home again, the classically inspired landscaped I like the excitement of working on a large scale but there
grounds of nearby Croome Court suggested a drawing. is risk involved and success usually lies in knowing when
Keats, who wrote of ‘the beautiful mythology of Greece’, to stop. ere is limited potential for the reworking which
puts in an appearance. He was transfixed by the Parthenon is possible with painting in oils. Sometimes I have to tear
marbles, newly arrived in the British Museum. e open- and patch, in which cases the torn edges become part
ing passages of Endymion, based on the myth of the young of the progress of the work. Sometimes l do this anyway
shepherd who was loved by the moon goddess, were writ- in order to break up the surface or suggest the abrasions
ten in lodgings in Castle Road, Carisbrooke, a few doors of time. Sometimes the drawing works on its own, just
down from where I once lived. e island landscape the range of tones and marks against the untouched white
in Spring can be glimpsed through his imagined evoca- of the paper conveys enough.
tion of Ancient Greece. Bridget Macdonald
Malvern, June 2012
e above gives some idea of the background to these
works, my travels and thoughts while they were in the
making. e places are significant but so is an inner
landscape of connections, memories and associations.

Drawings predominate in this group of works. Drawing
is for me primarily the challenge of evoking space, light,
landscape, the living presence of animals and humans
with the simplest of materials.