Dimensions: support: 892 x 795 mm
Copyright: © The estate of Patrick Symons | CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 DEED, Photo: Tate
Editor: Patrick Symons' "Oak Arch Grey (Wimbledon Common)" pulls me right into the woods. It feels like a place of sanctuary, but also a bit melancholic. What do you see in this piece? Curator: I see how Symons uses the archway of trees as a symbolic threshold. Consider how forests, particularly oaks, have long represented both refuge and the untamed. What do these spaces evoke for you personally? Editor: A sense of calm, but also of being watched. Curator: Exactly. The layering of greens and greys can suggest a place of hidden meanings, a space where the veil between worlds thins. Forests often symbolize the unconscious in folklore. Editor: It's fascinating how a simple landscape can hold so many layers. I'll never look at a forest the same way again. Curator: Visual symbols invite us to delve deeper into shared cultural memory. Every image resonates with both individual and collective experience.
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http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/symons-oak-arch-grey-wimbledon-common-t03552
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Patrick Symons brought a rigorous approach to his paintings. He made numerous preliminary drawings and continually corrected his compositions, which can be analysed on many levels. He paid close attention to their geometry but also to their specific content. He was a keen botanist and this is reflected in the precision of his landscape paintings. Symons frequently worked on one subject over a long period and this is one of an extended series of intensely observed paintings of Wimbledon Common, which he first painted in 1967. The artist described the clearing in this painting as having been the site of much activity, with walkers and horses passing through. Symons himself is seen, sitting working under a tree. Gallery label, September 2004
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