Enfolded by Nature

Review of ‘In the Wild Wood,’ solo show at the blackShed gallery, by Gareth Stevens, Hastings Indépendant Press, December 1st 2022, .

Being in the natural world and forging a relationship with it, is vital for wellbeing and, for Stephanie Fawbert it, is the bedrock of her inspiration. Her work recurrently features one or sometimes several figures that are dwarfed by their natural surroundings. Through her paintings she sublimely captures that momentary sense of peace and wonder that descends on us when confronted by the immensity of nature. “I find deep solace and beauty in the natural world. I love to juxtapose humans and nature so as to emphasise that we are not separate from, but part of nature.” she tells me.

Fawbert is a painter, who lives and works in Hastings. After studying fine art in Newcastle in the 1980s she went on to pursue a career in national newspapers before working in community development in Africa and the UK. She has returned to painting over the last 12 years and after procuring a large airy studio has been able to expand her practice to focus more on producing oil paintings, some of which are large scale.

‘Riverbank’ depicts a wiry young man clinging to a tree whose trunk swings out over a river. Through discussion with Fawbert, I find out how convoluted and precise her creative process is. ‘Riverbank’ is the result of fine tuning and combining many elements from a series ofphotographic sources. Its finely balanced composition recalls Claude Lorrain and Fawbert’s use of an almost kodachrome palette imbues the painting with a wistful nostalgia that pulls you in, startles by reminding us of how essential it is to reconnect with the natural world.

In ‘Along the Shoreline’ a kayak holding two indistinct figures traverses the edge of a mountain lake. Bright orange, the vessel contrasts the dank verdant landscape. As in all her work, Fawbert captures the scene expertly without resorting to laboured brushwork. At first, when viewing her work from a distance it looks extremely detailed, but such is her command of tone and colour that on closer inspection it is astonishing to see how free and loose her style is. Indeed much of this painting was produced by dripping washes of oil paint to produce a convincing misty treeline.

Whilst much of her oeuvre is filmic both aesthetically and because of its strong dependence on the use of strong narrative, the two larger paintings on show are truly cinematic. Rural Fair and Frozen Tarn are the exhibition’s very impressive keystone pieces. The former is as cynical as Fawbert gets in her work. She seems to be poking benign fun at the folly of human activity featured. Usually interested in depicting people being nourished by a deeply reciprocal experience of nature, ‘Rural Fair’ depicts a number of brightly coloured vehiclesand a solitary figure under a towering sky. The scene is unfolding at the edge of a dark brooding forest and there is an atmosphere of uneasiness and foreboding. There is a sense of something about to happen. It is dusk and as the last of the day’s light fades we view the scene through the eyes of the lone vulnerable girl who ponders the inanity of human culture in the face of the profound mysterious beauty of the earth. I find the woodland in the background refers to that which is out of reach and unknowable. It warns us of the perils of disconnection, of seeing ourselves as separate from nature and returns us to the realisation that we are ultimately insignificant.

The work in this exhibition is deeply moving, extremely well conceived and masterfully executed. Following on from a long line of landscape painters (I kept being reminded of Corot as I viewed each new painting), Fawbert uses the bucolic to reflect deeply on the human condition.

‘In the Wildwood’ runs from 3rd December to the 11th February 2023. For more information please go to theblackshedgallery.org.uk.