The River Stour valley at Flatford, a landscape that still has many features Constable would have recognised
Why imagine a conversation with an artist who died 200 years ago?
One of Britain's most famous and popular artists, John Constable (1776 - 1837) was driven by a deep sense of nostalgia for the landscape he grew up in. He said "Still I should paint my own places best; painting is with me but another word for feeling, and I associate "my careless boyhood" with all that lies on the banks of the Stour; those scenes made me a painter, and I am grateful".
It seemed to me an interesting idea to imagine what he might think about the Suffolk of today, a place that he might still recognise, but which has nevertheless changed exponentially in the 200 years since Constable painted his most famous work, The Haywain.
But your paintings are all of the River Gipping, what has Constable got to do with that?
Gipping and the Stour are just a few miles apart. Both flow roughly from west to east and are quite small, intimate rivers. Both were extensively modified to make them navigable for trade, and both form wide, expansive estuaries before meeting the sea together between Felixstowe and Harwich. While the Stour and its valley have been preserved and celebrated due to its connection with Constable, the Gipping valley has been extensively developed and modified. This raises questions about how we treat the landscape and the value we place on the natural environment as a whole. Why are some places given special status while others are not? I couldn’t help but wonder what Constable would say if the Gipping had been his river, rather than the Stour.
So is it all bad news regarding the River Gipping then?
Absolutely not. It’s still a beautiful place and fantastic work is going on at a community level to clean up rubbish and create habitats for wildlife. Even in areas where crass and unsympathetic development has taken place, nature tries to cling on, exploiting any opportunity. Everywhere I look I see hope for a better future. My biggest fear is that because so much development has occurred in the Gipping valley with little consideration for its impact, this trend will be allowed to continue. It’s as though planners think “it’s just the Gipping valley, so it doesn’t matter, it’s okay to build another housing estate, warehouse or whatever”. I think the process of designating certain landscapes as ‘special’ - like the River Stour valley which is classified as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty - may contribute to this mindset, because, by definition, other places are then not worthy of the same care and attention. In reality, surely it’s all special and it all matters? It’s time we woke up to that.