'Silver Birches in the Snow' by Bella Bigsby, Large Sunlit Winter Landscape, Oakland, Norfolk

Description

Signed, verso, 'Bella' for Bella Bigsby (British, 20th century) and painted circa 2010.

A substantial oil landscape showing a panoramic … more Signed, verso, 'Bella' for Bella Bigsby (British, 20th century) and painted circa 2010.

A substantial oil landscape showing a panoramic view of a warmly sunlit grove of silver birch trees. Bella Bigsby describes her work as an “emotive response to nature”. Her hauntingly atmospheric paintings of birds, animals and landscapes invite the viewer to dwell on the magic and poetry of the natural world.

For the past eighteen years, Bigsby lived, painted and exhibited in Oakland, California. She recently returned to England to live in Norwich, in the county of Norfolk.

"In my oils on canvas, I combine tangible elements of the world around me with my memories of landscape and home and a love of the magical nature of myth and fairytale. I am interested in the details of things, the textures, in how the place where you grow up shapes the person you are. It becomes an internalized landscape, like the shape of a familiar tree.

Animals and birds that have a rich folkloric tradition are particularly intriguing to me as they are infused with layers of human history as well as with their own unknowable narratives.

For me, nature is a separate yet parallel world. I am most interested in the quiet presence of this world, where it touches our everyday one, rather than in nature at its most grand and dramatic. Familiar birds and trees are, to me, endlessly rich in beauty and meaning."

With thanks to the artist's website. less