Archipelago is a series of paintings from an expedition to Fernando de Noronha in Brazil.
100 million years ago, when the tectonic plates of South America and Africa were moving apart, there was volcanic activity creating underwater mountains in the meso Atlantic range. 214 miles off the north East Coast of Brazil is the miniature archipelago of Fernando de Noronha. Rising from the ocean floor 13,000 feet below sea level an underwater mountain emerges from a turquoise sea, culminating in a 1,060-foot high peak of rugged grey basalt rock surrounded by twenty-one small islands. Seen from a satellite, the structure shows the geological scars of a remote past, when the rock was violently spat out of the mountain. The sea begins where the coast falls away in abrupt cliffs. On the more protected leeward coast, they rise into sharp peaks, such as the Morro do Pico, almost piercing the sky at 1,000 feet high.
Long before anyone dreamt of satellite pictures or holiday snaps, painters were making images of the landscape to take home. In the summer of 1887 H.N. Ridley from the Natural History museum in London made a study of Fernando de Noronha. In 2001 I followed in his footsteps drawing and painting specific viewpoints of the island, including Pico Mountain from Conceicao beach, Sapata point, the Chapeu do Sudeste Island entrance to Sudeste Bay.
"This is exquisite work, with material, colour and line combining to create something more richly suggestive and totemic than the merely figurative - this is the essence of landscape."
Ian Dejardin, Director, Dulwich Picture Gallery
"These beautiful paintings manage to evoke the spirit of an island
which is rich in historical associations"
Professor Richard A. Fortey FRS
The Natural History Museum Author 'Earth - An Intimate History', Knopf
Tags: Jeremy Gardiner Fenando De Noronha Purbeck Light Years FDN
