Engelberg

Ian Clements

Watercolour and charcoal from the valley I live in, and the coast I came from.

Loipe Engelberg · watercolour, 57 × 42 cm ↓

Two places, one way of looking.

I was born in the south of England and I live in Engelberg, in the mountains of Central Switzerland. I paint in watercolour and I draw in charcoal.

Most of what I paint I have walked past: a cross-country track after new snow, a windsock bending in a storm, friends on the Dorfstrasse, a grandmother and a child bent over a rock pool. I start with a sketch or a photograph, then I let memory do the editing. The light stays. The detail goes.

On the easel

Dancing with the Wind

This is about broad movement and changing air, painted as a lively edge rather than a fixed view.

Almost the whole sheet is weather. The houses, the walkers and a windsock bent flat by the wind are the only hard edges; everything else is grey wash, left alone to move.

Watercolour · 74 x 103 cm · sold

Look closer

I · The valley

Engelberg, in all its weather.

Paragliders over the valley, an empty station, a Sunday walk, a Tuesday one. The village and the mountains above it, painted again and again because they are never the same twice.

Paraglyder, watercolour by Ian Clements — Paraglyder Watercolour · 39 x 59 cm · sold

Bubbles, watercolour by Ian Clements — Bubbles Watercolour · 47 x 19 cm · sold

Sunday stroll, watercolour by Ian Clements — Sunday stroll Watercolour · 15 x 35 cm · sold

Tuesday Stroll, watercolour by Ian Clements — Tuesday Stroll Watercolour · 15 x 35 cm · available

Empty Station, watercolour by Ian Clements — Empty Station Watercolour · 39 x 59 cm · available

II · The coast

The sea keeps coming back.

Before the mountains there was the south of England, and its coast still turns up in my paintings: beaches, rock pools, a bucket and spade. Usually a little brighter than the snow.