The Idle Tide

The Idle Tide
by Maxine Whitbread-Abrutat

Oils, acrylics, watercolour  
35cm x 35cm
White St Ives style frame

The outside and particularly the sound of water (Maxine is a regular sea swimmer and dipper all year round) is her calming space. She loves the sounds and visual rhythm of sea and landscapes as the swirl within the colours of the natural living word.

Maxine is a Cornish artist living on the wild, North Atlantic blue coastline in Rose Perranporth and has been inspired from a young age by the beauty and draw of the Cornish landscape. It started with childhood holidays on Cornish beaches; even though she did not realise it at the time, these were to become a pivotal influence for her creative interest in and passion for landscapes, the sea, and social surroundings.

Her practice has a focus on the emotive questioning of landscapes. She reflects on the power, structure, and beauty of the Cornish landscape, looking at the nature of its sweeping energy and scarred appearances. She experiences the landscape through the effects of place, time, movement, seas, colours, space, and the relationship it has with people.

Her visual works combine a sensory experience through paint and mixed media connecting and strongly capturing the colours and true intensity of the Cornish coastline and countryside. Azures, Atlantic blues, whites, ochres, and greens are evident, as are the sweeping, simplistic use of line to define and resonate the movement and atmosphere within my works.