Brancaster Chronicle No. 91: Hilde Skilton
Any Moment Now
Artists Statement
I work with purpose, concentrating purely on the visual, this develops until there is all inclusive involvement within the painting. I use colour deliberately, for myself a necessary visual aspect of painting. The colour is built from a depth of successive fine transparent layers vibrating at different frequencies. Nothing is obliterated, everything becomes integrated. The colour evolves in to a dynamic fluid presence.
All paintings are 150cms x 100cms
Hilde’s are all oil on linen
All were painted between 2020 and 2021
Strum
Shifting Sound
Colour Of Space
Stretched Time
Strange Noise
Drumming Drone
Foghorn
Dawn Chorus
Sound Of Matter
Brancaster Chronicles 
From Anne
Hilde…there is no way I cannot say immediately how bowled over I am by your paintings !!!!
Colour and colour and colour and delivery of colour
Outstanding
They are going to take some serious looking at .
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Hi Hilde, these paintings feel full of airy movement, the colour is joyous and really vibrant!
The ‘frequencies’ are there to be experienced on different levels, softly in ‘Any Moment Now’ and ‘Foghorn’ , and more dynamically in ‘Sound of Matter’ and ‘Dawn Chorus ‘.
Lots to experience, will carry on looking and comment again.
Wonderful!
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Love the energy, the ZEST in these, they look like they are from the entire body….hand made.
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I like Strum the most on first viewing. It seems more assured in the drawing, which has a gentle rocking to it, also the use of colour. The density of the paint is really nice with the transparencies holding up well. At times, in the others, I am reminded of Friedel Dzubas in the informal handling but with a more “aquatic” palette.
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Thank you for the comments on first viewing from Anne, Noela, Saul and Emyr. I am pleased that movement was picked up on as well as the levels of colour. Look forward to hearing more from you all.
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I have been able to view these paintings several times over the last few weeks and have been struck by Hilde’s use of colour to generate expression. The colour emerges from within the painting, rather than on top of the canvas. The paint is not so much on the surface but inside the surface. The varying densities created by veils of different colour; no colour completely disappears beneath another, but adds to the increasing density with blues and reds pushed out, emerging into the light, up to the surface, as in Drumming Drone. This fluid, gentle relationality creates in indeterminate and slightly unsettling visual environment.
By contrast, ‘Sound of Matter’ is more elemental, more violent, crushed sulphur, cobalt and malachite reacting to produce new compounds. In ‘Foghorn’ the denser areas are trapping and holding on to colour in the depth of the canvas only for it to be released and shine outward.
The process of painting, the individual decisions taken, the beginning and the end, all are completely overcome by the absolute coherence of the expression.
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I am liking the gentle explosions of colour in ‘Shifting Sound’, especially the turquoise and vermillion accents, there is a vibrant ‘florabundance’ (if that was a word), expressive pinks, reds and purples create a wonderful richness.
The linear qualities in ‘Strum’ lend a breezy, slightly restless, tossing motion which takes the eye all around the canvas, lots of movement in this painting.
Whereas the movement in ‘Sound of Matter’ seems to come from the middle and moves outwards, I really like the strong fiery action in the centre.
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It’s interesting to see how areas of discrete colour that encapsulated the push/pull dynamics of earlier work have been gradually atomised and subsumed or even submerged. Brush strokes seem to act in wave-like rhythms that flood and circulate the picture plane. I’m particularly drawn to ‘Strum’ which pulses right to its edges without drawing attention to them. A strange and original duality is at work here: These paintings, gesturally , feel taut like a drum, yet at the same time, they remain fluid and the colour just keeps rolling on, offering up more and more to the eye. Beautiful.
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From Anne
Hilde
one thing is for sure these paintings are here and we will always be able to keep going back to look more and get more
That is what I’ve been doing for the last week …and I still don’t get how they do what they do ..and I feel really excited about that.
Some of the descriptions above are terrific and complementary and rightly so. I particularly like John B’s from this morning .and he does articulate a sensation more than an actual definition.
at the moment I can’t find adequate words to do them justice.
I have tried to go to every one and understand. What I have got out of that for myself Hilde, so I hope you will go with me !!! is an equal sense of intention and intensity in all of them. I see a few comments have picked up on ‘Strum’ …I get that. the rhythms do drum and hold not on repeat but on a resonate. .but they all resonate , they all have their own rhythm , they all take their space and shake it all about for us to experience in different ways but sometimes the same.
Yes… I have started to use words and am trying to describe….
..tif I look at the paintings as stream they do take my breath away ..just too much ..colour and atmosphere..too seductive…but I am beginning to see that they are not a series. They are all individual ,and maybe do operate best seen singly..the thing about series paintings is that they need each other ..not the case here. The other thing is that they are all in a small and a large world of their own..in spite of your intense application of colour washes/layers they have no “Hilde-ness” which overpowers them …YOU make them fly but YOU stay on the ground. I seem to be saying a lot of things they are NOT ..I think that is a plus….They appear to be atmospheric but they are not “out of space ” ,not cosmic. You have control of the layers of colour which make the space .. you manipulate those colours and keep that space up to the front for us to see. Visual. I never feel to much depth , just painted space and no three dimensionality.
…and then there is the movement you create…an attention to the pace and speed and direction ..in all of them these work for me…. I am sorry I cannot criticise them .
Again so many words for the Visual… I am regularly disturbed by the similarity of description across disciplines…
Sometimes they are great though and I enjoy the cross referencing.
Yesterday someone on the radio described a short passage of contemporary jazz [ can’t remember who said it or what it was ,.. it doesn’t matter ] ….as
“Air becoming flint ‘…I like that..there is a connection for me ,today, to your paintings.
Anne
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Thank you for looking at this work and making comments; your thoughts on how you engaged with these paintings are much appreciated.
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I appreciate the variety in worlds that Hilde offers in her Chronicle. I like the contrast in elements, including their size.
I enjoy the contrast in multidirectional movement in ‘Colour Of Space’, the relationships between soft and hard.
‘Stretched Time’ seems more together (I’m not sure together is necessarily better) and I like the work that the narrow lines are doing with the colour and movement. Movement left to right is counterbalanced by an area coming up diagonally from the right edge which creates an interesting tension. Nothing dominates here and each is doing its own meaningful, valuable work.
‘Drumming Drone’ works in a similar fashion: I slightly worry about the light blue area/shape at the top right side, as it seems to recede and contrast too much, but I’m aware that maybe very different in the flesh.
‘Dawn Chorus’ is strong, dark, brooding. It’s power relies in that strong red ‘boat’ shape centre right (perhaps a similar role to Stevens black loop in his ‘No. 1?). Here the left hand strong vertical structure is a counterpoise, which saves it from being all about that area. It’s an interesting conundrum to meditate on.
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