Northern Row 1 A painting of Lancashires uplands by Rob Miller

Farm and workshops Rossendale
Landscape without figures
Northern Row Series 1,Oil , 50cm x 70cm

"Northern Row Landscapes without figures;  The painter sees the absence of people in the painting like an absent or dead friend; they are gone but when he walks through their fields the marks they left on the land provide him with a meeting point in his life;  not only have the people gone but their value systems are now less relevant to life now; if I desire to find a kernel, a seed maybe or a key  to a door that they have left partially open can this be found in the search for beauty;  in the process of painting"  Sketch book notes 

I went to visit the Twombly Monet and Turner exhibition at the Liverpool Tate earlier this year.  The exhibition was a reminder of the debate I held with myself over the search for a sublime narrative to my work. A narrative that would incorporate the passage of time and the life cycle of renewal and decay. Three months later for me the northern row series starts to re-address that debate.  I've layered the paint and used different methods of application during each part of the process, the methods in part selected from Turner, Monet and Twombie. The  layers starting with Twomblie and ending up with Monet. For me the buildings stand as silent, melancholic  reminders of man's exploitation of the land whilst the grasses as ever, are a reminder of natures ability  of self reclamation and recolonization. The colour reproduction from the camera is not the best, the original is a warmer brownish ochre in the pasture by the houses and the field walls a deeper mauve.