LAR CANN

"In Search of Ancient Voices"

The fringes of Bodmin Moor , in particlar to the north-west and the south-west , are areas long associated with mineral-ore mining and hard rock quarrying . These activities have influenced the physical appearance of a landscape already unique in character . The granite tors , weathered and eroded since the ice age by the passage of time , are part of an ancient landscape , carrying the scars of industry .

This area of Cornwall has been Lar Cann's home since the 1970s and exerted a profound influence on his paintings . His intrest in linear abstraction has been stimulated by an exhibition of Ben Nicholson's low - reliefs at the Marlborough Gallery in 1963 . Nicholson's approach , more organic and obvious landscape - based that the harder - edge Constructivism of Naum Gabo or Victor Pasmore , was reinforced by the influence of Cann's tutor , Alex Mackenzie , Head of Painting at Plymouth Collage of Art . Cann regularly visited Mackenzie at his home in the Tamar Valley and then Penzance , where Mackenzie's cool minimal abstraction made him a leading light in post - war Newlyn and Penwith Societies of Artists , exhibiting alongside the pioneering St Ives abstract artists .

Although the landscape is always his first point of reference , Cann's primary concern , like Mackenzie , is theexploration of colour and texture on the picture plane with no attempt at photographic representation . Multilayered lakes and glazes , or body colour cut heavily with a medium , are applied mainly through filters or masks , allowing for the fortutous and accepting an element of suprise , akin to pulling a proof in printmaking . Through the composition is always a first consideration , it rarely subjugates anything impromptu revealed by a mask's removal : the unpremeditated is absorbed into the composition as a consequence of process and no longer thought of as random . In Cann's own words "I would not wish to over - paint the spontaneous and vital simply because it was not part of the original design - much better to find a conclusion by other means , to sustain the painting's own life."

In the early 1990s visits to the Cote d ' Azur had a drmatic effect on Cann's palette . The sketchbooks and colour notes produced in situ started to provide the basis for much of the work and the emphasis became more firmly on pure colclor . Kandinsky once spoke of the as having " that profound sense of seriousness which has no end " , and the deeper it becoms , the closer it gets to arousing a sense of the spiritual in the man. Cann's frequent use of manganese , ultramarine , cerulean violet and Prussian blue was a clear reaction to the intense heat of the summer months in the South of France , while the cadmium red and vermilion marks evoke the terracotta pantiles the pantiles of the region , heightened in chromatic purity in order to balance the blues.

Inevitably other artists closely associated with the Midi , such as Matisse and Yves Klein , have become sighnificant factors in the development of several avenues of Cann's recent work . This continues to cross - pollinate current ideas , through the industrial workings of Bodmin Moor's granite quarries and mineralogy frequently reoccur as a visual stimulus . This inspiration is now also very firmly based on direct observation of mineral collection that Cann has amassed in recent years , not just locally but from many parts of the globe . It's increasing importance can be recognized in the references to mineralogy in the titles given to his new work - malachite , azurite , chrysocolla , erythrite - which is usually related to the named source of excavation . Cann's recent exploration of the volcanic Eifel region of Germany has been the trigger for re - appraisal and development of the new paintings , resulting in a noticeable softening of the palette . Some of these themes have been vigorosly abstracted , others more demonstrable figurative , but the unifying thread is still a preoccupation with colour which has inevitably evolved to a position of becoming the principal concern of his painting.

FRANCIS MALLETT.

WHITE LANE PRESS 2008.