Wycliffe Stutchbury

The ancient British landscape and its ever-evolving story is an essential part of Wycliffe’s creative journey. His ambitious wall panels and standing screens are inspired by the countryside he has experienced and lived in over his lifetime; from the Fenlands of East Anglia to the South Downs, where the artist spent his earliest days. This childhood relationship to woodland means he has an intrinsically close bond to his material: holly bush, oak and bogwood express his emotional connection to his subject while acting as an index of place itself. For Wycliffe, the finished piece is always an exploration of landscape: field, furrow and fall line are all embedded in the undulating scenery his work recalls.

His making process is slow and meditative; delicately hewn tiles of wood are placed by hand to create abstract compositions that are at once emotive, intuitive and conceptual. Patterns emerge in linear forms and subtle tonal changes susurrate across the picture's surface - reminding us of the wood’s creation and guiding us back to place. The final mass of shimmering wood shingles suggests a tension between the unpredictability of the natural world and the artist’s desire to impose new structures, while simultaneously retaining the life of the tree and its unique textural imperfections. Inconsistencies and anomalies are augmented, allowing the material to express its story in dialogue with the artist’s practice.