Wivenhoe and Colchester campus

 

Constable was known for making composite images. In this painting of Wivenhoe he has positioned the main house so that its reflection is visible in the lake. Apparently in reality this is not the case.

He was also asked by the owners of the hall to include their deer house to the right which He did by extending the canvas.

Today the hall has been made into a hotel on the edge of Colchester campus and is mainly hidden by trees so it didn't require a great leap of the imagination to bring some of the new.er halls of residence into the foreground

Inspired by Peter Kennard

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Peter Kennard is widely known for his work with CND. His photomontage of cruise missiles ready to be launched in Constable's ‘Haywain’ is one of his most memorable works.

In this image I have superimposed a photo of a crop sprayer into his painting, ‘The Cornfield’. This painting is very familiar to me as my grandfather used to have a print hanging on his parlour wall. I never quite got the figure drinking from the pond as they always seemed to be slightly elevated from the floor.

The painting has become a stereo typical view of how we urban Britons view the countryside. The reality today however is very different. While in Northamptonshire in 2022 and crossing a field of barley we saw a crop sprayer in a distant part of the field. In moments it was coming towards us at speed and we were sprayed with fungicide from the massive booms. The spray drift tasted like paint stripper.

So I decided to place a crop sprayer in the centre of the picture. I like the fact that it is red as Constable often used red on figures to provide focal points in his paintings.