The sea and water have always been a strong theme in Ramsay Gibb’s work. Now landscape has been stripped away so that only the vast restless mass of water and the play of light remains.

“The sea remains tantalisingly beyond capture in static paint. It seems to run through the fingers and evade possession. What I portray is fraction of time but the painter must understand the moments before and after – the complete motion of which it was a small part. It is only by investing many hours and layering paint that the beauty and complexity of that instant can be revealed”

“The sea has been a metaphor for the boundless energy and vastness of nature, its indefatigable strength. It has been a synonym for immensity, of things beyond our dominion, both distance and time. Oceans both divided and connected us geographically and culturally. However our perception is changing.”

The flotsam of discarded waste and our carelessness have intruded upon the sea. We can measure changes in temperature, sea level and the decline in marine species. The is sea now a signifier and we doubt its ability to resist. Vast oceans are vulnerable to our misuse. They are our conscience, and an interest in the sea is an interest in our collective future.”

“The sea, the great unifier, is man’s only hope. Now, as never before, the old phrase has a literal meaning: we are all in the same boat”. Jacques Yves Cousteau.

Biography

Ramsay Gibb was born in Ayrshire in 1965 and his early years were spent on the coast near Troon. He later moved to Lancashire and studied in Bolton and then at Brighton Art College. He has lived on the Sussex and Suffolk coasts.

Remote shores, the sea and islands have inspired much of his work including Shetland, the Hebrides, Ireland, Finland,  Northern Norway, The Lofoten Islands, The Faroes, Greenland and Russia.

His interest in the historical dimension of the landscape of the British Isles led to extensive walking of Sacred Ways and Pilgrim routes between 2009-2014 for a series of exhibitions. 

He now lives in rural Lancashire.