Nature, form, colour and texture have been defining elements of Graeme Black’s life and work from his childhood on the rocky east coast of Scotland and his career as an acclaimed international fashion designer, to his current role as a burgeoning artist nestled in the Yorkshire Dales.
Born and raised in Angus, Black graduated from the Edinburgh College of Art in 1989 before heading south to pursue his career in pulsating 1990s London. After cutting his teeth working under John Galliano, Arabella Pollen, Zandra Rhodes, he went on to spend 15 years in Italy, working closely with Giorgio Armani on his womenswear collections before becoming Creative Director of womenswear at Salvatore Ferragamo in Florence.
After spending several years traversing the globe to China where he worked as Creative Director of fine-cashmere brand, Erdos 1436, in 2016 Black decided to step back from his three-decade fashion career and devote his time to the regeneration project he and his partner had embarked on in the extraordinary landscape of Upper Wensleydale. It was here where he found his artistic raison d’etre.
While restoring his surroundings - planting new forests, reinstating old wooden gates and regenerating meadows and untouched land - Black was afforded the time to slow down, hit reset and appreciate the changing of seasons for the first time in years. Working the land, he became captivated by the trees around him.
It wasn’t long before their sculptural form, chameleonic colouring and naïve complexities came to life on canvas in a converted 18th century cattle barn.
Black uses his instinctive understanding of tone and texture to capture the fleeting forest moments he experiences. Starting with charcoal sketches on raw-cotton backgrounds, Black creating depth by working with palette knives to apply layers of oil paint which are experimentally mixed to capture the nuances of colour in nature.
At once abstract and representational, Black’s works are alluringly open to interpretation. Ever evolving and unrestrained, Black’s surroundings mirror his new trajectory; liberated from rigid routines and uncompromising deadlines, he is free from the pressure of performance in his work, no longer dictated to by seasons established by the fashion industry, only those of the natural world he is immersed in.