Gardiner’s series of paintings The Jurassic Coast pay homage to the ancient coastal landscapes of Purbeck. Travelling the twenty miles from Old Harry Rocks to Lulworth Cove by land, sea and air Gardiner’s horizontal paintings capture subtle glimpses of the landmark coast. Places such as Kimmeridge, Dancing Ledge, Chapmans Pool, Old Harry and Durdle Door are seen in differing lights and perspectives, experiences that, filtered through memory and imagination, yield the tantalising, challenging and equivocal images.
Inspired by the geologically varied Dorset landscape, celebrated in Paul Nash’s landmark study The Shell Guide to Dorset (1935), Gardiner has intimately explored this heritage site. The pictures, like the geological spectrum of the region, are stratified creating distinct bands of paint and colour that break up the painter’s journey. Gardiner’s working methods – scouring, building accretions of paint, collaging, sanding down, graffiti marking – echo the history of these ancient landscapes and their complex layers built up over centuries.
A Panoramic View
