My work has often involved using landscape as metaphor: for the human condition, for states of mind, or as a way of expressing ideas about transience, fragility and awe. Recently the imagery of my paintings and woodcuts has shifted from the actual experience of natural phenomena towards a more imaginary and mythological dreamscape.

This work, though sourced in part from drawings and photographs made in the area where I live (on the edge of the Weald in East Sussex) has also been inspired by certain Asian texts that describe life in a shack in the wilderness. Po Chi-i’s moving account of inhabiting his thatched Hall on Mount Lu; Kamo No Chomei’s beautiful description of living in a ten-foot-square hut on Mount Hino; (with a geopolitical backdrop of famine, war and uncertainty) and Matsuo Basho’s sunnier and more upbeat rendition of his six-month sojourn on the shore of Lake Biwa, east of Kyoto, have all meant much to me. They connect you to the overpowering and heightened experiences of living a weather-beaten life in the countryside – a less cluttered way of life bound up with the rotation of the seasons.

The recurring motifs of a small family group, a shed, or a simple house, set in a flattened out landscape are combined to express both how fragile our interwoven existence is on Earth, and how precarious the conjuring and arrival of creativity is for an artist. I have been using these sorts of images to investigate a more celebratory relationship between dwelling and environment. For me, this is a theme of wonder and a possible answer in the quest for contentment in life. At root, these pictures dwell on quite personal requirements for happiness: a love of the natural world, and as far as possible, simplicity in living.

Tom Hammick 2012

A full CV of the artist can be seen at the end of the exhibition catalogue pdf

Tom Hammick's work ranges in price from £720 - £19,200