William Crozier HRHA (1930 - 2011)
The Inlet
Oil on canvas, 81 x 101cm
Signed

 

In 1983 Crozier and his wife Katherine bought a cottage in Kilcoe, near Skibbereen. They divided their...

William Crozier HRHA (1930 - 2011)
The Inlet
Oil on canvas, 81 x 101cm
Signed

 

In 1983 Crozier and his wife Katherine bought a cottage in Kilcoe, near Skibbereen. They divided their time between the cottage and their home in Hampshire. Crozier was absorbed in painting this West Cork landscape, drawn to the sea, and to environments that were defined by it, where the whole place was looking out onto it, as he remarked "I find that such towns hold a different kind of history, they're turning points in the human mind as well". ('A Man of Imagination', Philip Yann, William Crozier, ed. Katherine Crouan, 2007, p.36)

His time in Cork reflected a new level of discovery for the artist, coming to terms with the landscape which imbues the works with a certain level of freshness and immediacy, free from any visual preconceptions of the West of Ireland. While lacking the physical representation of people or animals in the works, he was adamant that the human presence is there regardless. By viewing the landscape, we put ourselves amongst it and become the subject.

Crozier was not an en-plein-air landscape artist, instead choosing to paint from his mind's eye, recalling his experiences of the landscape. He painted quickly, rarely taking him more than a day to complete a work, remarking "I like to start a picture and finish it in one go... when I have painted the same thing over and over again, looking at the pictures you wouldn't necessarily know it's the same subject. I've got to know something quite and you see it differently at different times of the day." ('A Man of Imagination', Philip Yann, William Crozier, ed. Katherine Crouan, 2007, p.38-39)

While his work was based around particular locations south-west Ireland, Provenance or Southern Spain, they lack elements of the parochial, instead relying on recognition coming from their repeated patterns and motifs to create something which has a wider perspective. He has remarked "I cannot paint topographical paintings... I want the painting to have a resonance that has as much to do with time, as it has to do with appearance". ('Landscapes: West Cork and Hampshire 1984-90', William Crozier, ed. Katherine Crouan, 2007, p.118)

In these works, including the present example, he paints nature close up, reduced to horizontal bands of colour. In The Inlet, the deeply resonant red of the middle ground is picked up again as a thin line representing the horizon and in the sharp verticals of the tree. The sea and sky are made of blues, blacks and purples, giving the scene a striking variety of darks and lights. The injection of colour comes from the bright blue of the water of the inlet. The landscape forms often hover between flat shapes and dimensional forms, the three upright green trees, which we look through to the inlet beyond. There is a deep relationship between structural form and colour in the work, which creates a mythical atmosphere to the landscape.

Niamh Corcoran, June 2021

 

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