Joanna Loring-Fisher

Its been quite a while since I wrote this blog.

Since Christmas I have written an illustrated a 'dummy' children's book, which I have sent to Walker. The story finds a home for the little fox character I was playing with before Christmas. It was also inspired by the snow we had in January. Keeping my fingers crossed. Hopefully when all has calmed down after Bologna, Walker will get to look at it.

Most recently I have been working on my exhibition which is being held the first weekend in May. With two of my very talented artist friends, I am showing work inspired by the Wiltshire landscape.

Liney, Julie and I walk our dogs most mornings on the edge of Salisbury plain. It is a very beautiful and interesting piece of land, full of ridges, steps and undulations. While we walk, talk and take in the landscape, we are frequently interupted by various blasts and booms from the army training ground that is Salisbury plain. When the red flag is flying we know that we will be subject to these haunting and eerie sounds, so familiar yet so incongruous in these tranquil surroundings. My exhibition therefore, will be called Red Flag. In some of the paintings there is a sense of absence, or a hint at presence. Some areas of the paintings are reminiscent of no-man's land, they seem baron and barbed. The paintings incorporate maps of the locality, the red triangles of the 'danger zone' visable. This landscape, above West Lavington, is truly like a living map where the contour lines appear and mold the hills. My paintings incorporate these lines. I also wanted to link my work in with Julie and Liney's. As Textile designers, their works for the exhibition involve printing using organic forms, experimenting, playing with and delighting in the accidents that happen with the process of making their images. Areas of my paintings are like a tapestry, with the many lines appearing almost as stitches. The paintings are also fragmented. I wanted to give them a fragile and broken feel. The main piece appears as four-or it could be five (I'm still working on it)panels, placed together like a series of photographs making up a panoramic view. Although the images appear to join to create this view, there is also a play on scale, which make them not quite fit.

I guess all of these elements together represent a battle, a war and of an uncertain world. I do not really seek to make a political statement about the on-going wars in the Middle-East, but just an acknowledge those involved in them, be it our troupes or the innocent civilians of these countries. When you hear the sounds of war everyday when you're walking your dogs, it makes you think...... This aside, I think the paintings can be appreciated just as landscape paintings about my home. There will be drawings and prints for sale, as well as original paintings.