Clive Brandon
My practice responds to the landscapes, architecture, spaces, and places I inhabit and explore, drawing upon my deep connection to the environment. Recent work focuses on the concept of the ‘constructed landscape,’ exploring how human intervention shapes and reshapes natural spaces.
Through an experimental and often improvised process, I use a diverse range of materials, including found objects like cardboard, scrap wood, and paper, combined with watercolour, charcoal, and newsprint. My pieces evoke both real and imagined landscapes, grounded in my surroundings yet speaking to broader questions about our relationship with nature. These works are informed by the Japanese aesthetic of wabi sabi, celebrating imperfection and impermanence, as well as ‘Casualist’ art influences, creating lo-fi pieces that embrace the beauty of the unfinished and the temporary. Light and space are integral to my work. The space within and between the work allows the viewer to occupy it, much like the experience of being in the actual landscape. It extends beyond the confines of a canvas or frame, beyond peripheral vision, offering a breathing space akin to a walk—thinking, looking, pausing. The viewer navigates the work in much the same way one reads a map or a book, moving through the clues of landscape and topography.
Since relocating from the city to the Scottish Highlands in 2015, my work has become more attuned to the rhythms of the landscape. My creative process is now intertwined with the changing seasons and the ever-shifting environment. The varying energies of spring, summer, autumn, and winter shape my work, and I aim to reflect this cyclical nature in my practice. This approach also aligns with my awareness of the ongoing climate and ecological crisis, prompting me to consider how my art can engage with these urgent global issues.
As a regenerative gardener, I explore connections between permaculture, site-specificity, and constructed landscapes. Both my gardening and artistic practices are rooted in observation, pattern recognition, and the mapping of natural cycles—weather patterns, seasonal changes, and landscape transformations. My work reflects these interconnected processes, with an emphasis on closed loops, circular systems, and sustainable practices.
My work draws inspiration from contemporary and historical artists and movements, including the Land Art and Minimalism of Robert Smithson and Ian Hamilton-Finlay, the Anarchitecture of Gordon Matta-Clark, the surreal pastoral landscapes of Paul Nash, and the 1950s works of Joan Eardley and Francis Davison. I also find resonance in the practices of contemporary artists such as David Lemm, Tony Swain, Emily Speed, Helen O’Leary, and Louise Barrington.
Through my art, I invite viewers to consider the landscapes we inhabit—not only as physical spaces but as constructs shaped by human hands.
