Timothy Spall: Winter Sun
Pontone Gallery is proud to present Timothy Spall’s exhibition of new paintings. These atmospheric and sometimes surreal landscapes record scenes selected en passant from a peripatetic working life, where the artist is on the move and seldom still. Spall puts together an anthology of disparate places which have all caught his watchful eye. The pictures depict the elemental forces of weather and the evocative modulations of sun and moonlight on topologies as various as Birkenhead, the Straits of Messina and Iceland.
Pontone Gallery is proud to present Timothy Spall’s exhibition of new paintings. These atmospheric and sometimes surreal landscapes record scenes selected en passant from a peripatetic working life, where the artist is on the move and seldom still. Spall puts together an anthology of disparate places which have all caught his watchful eye. The pictures depict the elemental forces of weather and the evocative modulations of sun and moonlight on topologies as various as Birkenhead, the Straits of Messina and Iceland.
Spall sticks close to his motif, describing what is seen with a painstaking, analytical eye. He uses a subdued palette, with a tonal emphasis, which serves to describe the effect of light. A favourite theme is roiling, boiling skies that show the sun’s rays bursting through banks of stormy cloud, reflecting in dark and turbid seas. A tendency to the sombre is relieved by tints of tangerine orange and lemon yellow in his sunsets and dusky shades of ultramarine and indigo in sky and sea. In his Icelandic scenes, translucent emerald-green streaks describe the eerie effects of the Northern lights.
In contrast to his more vaporous and gestural handling of landscape, the painter often introduces graphic and detailed images of dramatically gothic trees, intricate architectural silhouettes and close-ups of geological features. These give focus and assert a sense of actual place. Spall wants us to know that the elemental maelstrom and the sublime awe of primal turmoil that he witnesses, and delights in, operates in the specific here and now.
It could be said that there are two types of landscape painter: one who is embedded in a sense of place and one who records what he sees in passing. Constable and Turner are the two great examples of each type. Timothy Spall, in what he describes as his ‘Peregrinations’, falls into the latter category. Moving through the world, he grabs at that which best makes sense of his unique journey.
-
The Beatification of Birkenhead, 2023Acrylic on canvas91 x 152 cm
35.8 x 59.8 in -
The Firmament Ignores Another Icarus, 2023Acrylic on canvas101.5 x 76.5 cm
40 x 30.1 in -
The Healing Sky, 2023Acrylic on canvas76 x 101.5 cm
29.9 x 40 in -
Timothy Spall, Reflecting Sea Gifts, 2023
-
No, There is Always Light, 2023Acrylic on canvas101 x 76 cm
39.8 x 29.9 in -
Winter Sun. Frozen Arteries, Feral Clouds Ignore The Distant Steeple Status, 2023Acrylic on canvas76 x 101.5 cm
29.9 x 40 in -
Ancient Desolation Briefly Glimpsed, 2023Acrylic on canvas79.5 x 120 cm
31.3 x 47.3 in -
They Come From So Far, 2023Acrylic on canvas79 x 120 cm
31.1 x 47.2 in -
A Soft and Brutal Debate , 2023Acrylic on canvas76 x 122 cm
29.9 x 48 in -
Heaven's Brief Verification, 2023Acrylic on canvas121.5 x 76 cm
47.8 x 29.9 in -
The Flood Lit Wisdom of Stones, 2023Acrylic on canvas76 x 102 cm
29.9 x 40.2 in -
Startled Moon Tree, 2023Acrylic on canvas99.5 x 79.5 cm
39.2 x 31.3 in -
A Silent, Sky Music, Tree Dance, 2023Acrylic on canvas79.5 x 100 cm
31.3 x 39.4 in -
Timothy Spall, Yearning Pontoon Port Balaro, 2023
-
The Importance of Windowsills, 2023Acrylic on canvas121.5 x 76.5 cm
47.8 x 30.1 in
-
Actor Timothy Spall shows Turner-esque works in second London show
Star has played Turner and L.S. Lowry on screenThe Art Newspaper, November 13, 2023 -
Timothy Spall: I played Turner. Now my paintings sell for thousands
The actor’s second exhibition opens at the Pontone Gallery in Mayfair this week. He talks about how painting is a new obsession that’s changed his lifeKatie Gatens, The Times, November 12, 2023