"My photographs were puny, lifeless and disappointingly insignificant when compared with the raw savage splendour I witnessed before me. I had to express my experiences somehow – painting was the answer.
"The landscape is my focus: its ever-changing moods, forms, forces, light and weather. Sometimes buildings will take centre-stage, buildings hewn from the local rock, ancient buildings that could almost be an organic extension of the land and the rock itself. Man isn’t present in my work, only the hand of Man – Man and Landscape together, living, working, evolving, dying...
"I work both outdoors on location and in the studio; my outdoor paintings tend to be in inks and wax resist on watercolour paper, my studio work acrylics on canvas applied with a knife. Back at the studio I spend a long time thinking about a painting, assembling the visual memories in my mind, recalling my experiences of the landscape, allowing the composition to evolve. Then, when I paint, it is done rapidly, expressively, using a restricted palette (normally just yellow ochre, crimson, ultramarine, black and white), mixing colours on the canvas, scraping, mixing again, scoring the surface, scratching, carving and shaping the image in a manner that echoes the primeval forming of the land itself.
"To me, my paintings are a natural conclusion to an interaction with the landscape. They are a result of time spent in the elements, walking, sketching, painting, remembering. The feel of damp paper and the smell of the passing rain storm over Cullingworth in ‘Pennine Barn’; the warmth of the sun and the haunting call of the circling curlews echoing through ‘Littondale: Sunshine and Shadow’; the numb fingers and muffled crunch underfoot of deep snow in ‘Field Barn, Hebden’. I hope you enjoy sharing my experiences through these paintings."
'Cobbybrook' is the online pseudonym of artist and illustrator Martin Williamson. His paintings hang in private collections throughout the world and organisations such as The Friends Of Friendless Churches, The National Churches Trust and The Stowe House Preservation Group own original paintings.
Martin's work has been featured in numerous publications, including: the Yorkshire regional magazine 'The Dalesman' (May 2011), The Yorkshire Post newspaper (June 2011), The Guardian website (June 2011), regional magazine 'Northern Life' (Spring 2013), the Channel island's magazine 'Sark Life' (Issue 14, Summer 2014) and the web journal 'Bay Life' for the Pevensey Bay area (October 2016) .
LATEST NEWS!! New book now available! 'Recollections' - a collaboration with poet Giles Watson. Available to purchase online NOW: