NEIL FRAZER
Neil Frazer doesn’t just paint great landscapes, he transports you to places of unimaginable beauty where you feel part of the powerful force of nature.
The landscape artist transports you to places of unimaginable beauty.
When he was a child, Neil Frazer’s mother took him to see a series of engravings of water by Leonardo da Vinci. “One of the engravings was titled Watery Chaos, and I marvelled at how he could describe the movement of water with line,” says Frazer. “He captured the struggle and complex rhythms and energy of the sea and that drew me in. Such forces in the natural world are capable of shaping our coastline leaving gnarled and battered rock formations that speak of erosion by time and tide. In my sea paintings, I strive for an active and powerful depiction of that world in constant movement and change.”
Frazer’s new exhibition, for Philip Bacon Galleries in Brisbane, captures the experience of the sea – its smell, the feel and look of mist in the air, a hint of its threat, vastness and power. The show mainly comprises seascapes from Queensland and Northern NSW. “There are some fantastic caves in the national park at Noosa. They’re a little difficult to climb down to, but absolute magic for me,” says Frazer. “I also travelled around Cape Byron, Lennox Head and Cabarita as they all have jutting headlands and swelling seas.”
When creating a new show, research is always Frazer’s first priority. “I go to a chosen location making sure I know every possible aspect of the area and surrounding landscape so I miss nothing. I experience as much of what is out there as possible.”
Frazer has an uncanny ability to perfectly capture light. “I like to get up very early when I’m on a research trip; the first and last light of the day have the greatest contrast and drama and present a full range of light and dark in the landscape,” says Frazer. “When composing a picture, I like to use strong, well-defined areas of paint and texture. I usually rest in the middle of the day, while the sun is high and there is no shadow, and I head out again as the sun starts to set. I don’t stay for extended periods, but while I am there I try to actively engage with the locations – lots of walking, climbing, swimming; I want to feel and experience the place.
“I take lots of photos, which serve as a reminder back in the studio. Sometimes I bring back rocks or plant material, but the real physical experience of being in the landscape or on the sea is the main driver for my artwork.” Back in the studio, Frazer then starts to wade through the information he has gathered to try to draw out conclusions that make some kind of sense or statement about what he has experienced. “I am really a studio-based painter. I need to be surrounded by paint splatter and materials – I travel to revive, and to experience life and nature that feeds my work.
“I destroy many studies and paintings as I progress towards an exhibition. This part is often heartbreaking and difficult; there are many possible avenues to explore and I try to be as open as I can, as I know sometimes the feel I am after is just out of sight, but eventually discoverable.”
Frazer worked in oils for the first 20 years of his career before moving to acrylics because of their flexibility and quick-drying. His large-scale canvases show natural landforms in meticulous detail, which are made even more pronounced against a whitened sky. “I believe the brush strokes and the mark making are always a reflection of the artist who makes them,” says Frazer. “If you look at a painting by the Spanish artist Goya, the way he paints detail is amazing because it is exceptionally loose and he is actually creating an illusion of something complex. I love that painting can be loose and expressive, but also contain detail; it can be a series of simple marks applied to reflect energy and force.”
Making paintings is a constant challenge for Frazer. “When you are before a canvas, it is like a tennis game in which, as a player, you are fighting for every point. Painting is a game that plays out in your head and on the canvas. I always try to expand the boundaries of my work both intellectually and physically. When I am battling with work, I to try remember back to why I started making art in the first place and I remind myself that, at the heart of it, painting is an act of discovery.
• Neil Frazer is exhibiting at Philip Bacon Galleries, Brisbane, 21 July-15 August, 2020.
“PAINTING IS A GAME THAT PLAYS OUT IN YOUR HEAD AND ON THE CANVAS.”
NEIL FRAZER