In 2014 In the Country written by the artist David Gentleman was published by Full Circle Editions. This is a book some thirty five years in the making, a beautifully written and illustrated account of Gentlemen’s life at his second home, a 16th century end terrace in a small rural village in mid-Suffolk.
Despite living in London, this has never been a weekend retreat, it has been both a home and a place of work and his keen observational eye has helped him compile a comprehensive collection of paintings which perfectly capture the landscape and the people in the English countryside.
The book begins with an introduction to his house which began as the very end of a Suffolk longhouse before he eventually bought his neighbour’s property. In typical Gentleman fashion he is short on bravado describing it with a warm honesty which draws you in to a home rather than an acquisition; ‘The roof has the comfortable sag of an old building, and the gable and its barge boards slope outwards’
The beauty in his writing is his inherent ability to really see which is of course, what makes him a great artist and this attention to even the smallest detail is endearing in the way he describes the most simple of things. Whilst he is describing the Suffolk landscape much of what he observes relates to other parts of the English countryside making it less of a county guide and more a reflection of rural life across the country.
People are rarely left off his sketchbook and the book is full of simple yet sublimely effective line drawings and watercolours of village folk going about their daily lives from working in the fields to market days and country fairs.
Gentleman states that what drew him to the village was its ‘unremarkableness’ yet he manages to capture every essence of its life in a compelling way. From the near black of the rain-filled skies to the deep yellow of a rapeseed field in full bloom or the late arrival of the oak leaves, this is a book of colour. His colouring of fields and trees is remarkable, as are the dark brown shades of a freshly ploughed field in late winter.
But he also moves beyond the village and its immediate surroundings to the coast. From Orford Castle to Aldeburgh and the wonderfully named Shingle Street, from small fishing boats to long stretches of coastline we are shown another side of the area where he loves to come and paint.
In the Country is at once a nature journal, a personal diary and a reflective look at English life outside of the sprawl of urbanisation. Combine that with his remarkable illustrations and you have a wonderful book.
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Categories: David Gentleman
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