FOREWORD TO JOE’S BOOK, LIVING CANVAS
The emotive paintings of Joe Webster are love songs to the world, to nature, and to all that is real, strong, wild and free. Like a poet wielding a brush he immerses himself in his landscapes. He paints with his soul as much as his body, and with a raw abandon tempered by a steadfast appreciation of structure, form, colour and technique.
It is startling to see him on a vast and empty beach, cliffs looming all around, rain spattering his canvas, he is a tiny speck in nature, like driftwood, only buttressed by his easel, a warm jacket and a will to transmute the glory of all that is around him into form.
The best artists bring the deepest part of themselves into their work, leaving a subtle energetic residue of their soul at that time, in that place, like an etheric snapshot of who they most profoundly are. Their essence is somehow painted into the landscape or the tree or the clouds untethered on the horizon. It is a unique and binding alchemy that rings out from the work with a gentle authority and a silent integrity. Joe Webster is such an artist. He stands strong in the throes of the natural world and dares himself to withstand it, to capture it, to somehow hold it to him, so he can offer it to you. His art is a way to come home to the truest place of belonging, nature. His is an ethos that says ‘be here, now’.
Heather Burnett-Rose 2017
For education and exhibition history, take a look at Joe’s CV.
Find out the latest news on Joe’s exhibitions and workshops here.