Why ‘In Search of the Perfect Hill?’
A mountain is defined as being over one thousand feet (300m) above its surrounding land and usually has a pronounced summit and steeper more defined sides than a hill. A hill is expected to be a more modest rounded undulation in the landscape. Mountains have the connotation that suggests being imposing, rugged, challenging, lofty and superior and are inevitably named edifices, whilst hills carry expectations of approachability, gentler inclines, smoother surfaces, and contours. Most hills have names, but our perceptions are usually more usually of them being less dramatic than their fellow mountains. However, for this project the central subject of each artist’s vision is described as a hill but of course many an artist has sought the sublime among mountains!
One artist’s perfect hill may not be perfect to any other artist. The perfection may lie in obvious symmetry like that of man-made Silbury Hill or the naturally created Whimble. The artist might then seek to capture the visual equilibrium and how it sits within, and inter-relates to, a wider setting. For some artists, these regular profiles could be too harmonious to stimulate prolonged attention or a satisfying artistic response. Hills as subject matter certainly occupy a distinct place in the history of British culture and not only in Romantic art often linked to the study of light, atmosphere, and questions of national and personal identity. Richard Wilson pioneered the depiction of hills in British art in his travels through Wales, followed by William Gilpin’s ‘Observations on the River Wye and Several Parts of South Wales Relative chiefly to the Picturesque Beauty’ of 1782.
A perfect hill may be one that offers the artist easy accessibility with a variety of features or appearances that change through time, weather and viewing position, allowing the artist to visit regularly to capture the moods of the season, or hill, or artist. Perhaps perfection lies in the hill offering difficult access to its personality with characteristics that are seldom able to be glimpsed and recorded by the artist twice due to regional climate fluctuations or the changing vegetation or interactions of humans on its terrain through farming, quarrying or leisure activities. The notion of what is presented as a perfect hill will vary from artist to artist in that there is a connection and identification with a particular hill that may be because of geographic circumstance, historical, environmental or personal reasons.
Contributing artists will include: Jonathan Adams, Caroline Allen, Helen Arthur, Peter Bishop, Bryony Burns, Steve Cass, Adrienne Craddock, Tim Craven, Celia de Sera, Brian Griffiths, Bill Evans, Richard Gilbert, Veronica Guest, Sarah Harding, Lois Hopwood, Pip Jones, Andy Johnson, Charles MacCarthy, Andrea McLean, Fiona McIntyre, Katherine Moore, Ronald Moore, Fiona Potter, Rebecca Reynolds, Stuart Roper, Charles Sainsbury-Plaice, Susan Smith , Miranda Whitten-Walker, Matt Williams, Matthew Wood
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