simonburder@oaksfineart.co.uk

www.oaksfineart.co.uk

 

SIMON BURDER

Artist Statement

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Landscape is my preferred source of imagery, particularly where there is evidence of human activity.  Communication and transport routes such as paths, roads and canals, sites of industrial archaeology, and buildings such as churches or farms provide inspiration. 

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I enjoy drawing the strong shapes of such man-made structures, which often seem so embedded in their surroundings as to be natural features of the landscape.  I choose them to act as a formal compositional device, but they also speak of history and community. 

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In a desire to make more tangible the connection between the features I observe in landscape and the process of making a print, some works tend towards abstraction.  For instance the Walna Scar series developed from drawings and photos of a prehistoric track in the Lake District, focussing on the interlocking and overlapping rocks that compose the route. 

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I hope my images are as much about how I experience the landscape as they are representations of an actual place.  Lithography is my chosen means of expression.  It is a versatile printmaking medium, which depends on the chemical opposition of grease and water to print an image from the surface of limestone.  With the stone itself deriving from the landscape, I feel lithography has a real affinity with my subject.

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