Polly Townsend: States of Wilderness

Felstead Art is pleased to present States of Wilderness, a selected series of paintings showcasing Polly Townsend’s sustained engagement with some of the world’s most remote landscapes.

Inspired by expeditions and artist residencies across Antarctica, Kashmir, Kyrgyzstan, Death Valley, and the Badlands National Parks, these paintings reflect an enduring fascination with places that feel almost beyond reach, where immense scale and forces of nature shape both the landscape and our experience of it.

Working directly within the landscape, Townsend undertakes extended periods of travel to locations defined by their remoteness and environmental extremes. Mountain ranges, glaciers, deserts and ice fields emerge through richly textured surfaces. Preliminary works are made on-site in the form of sketches, photographs and written observations that then provide the starting point for paintings developed in the studio. Combining direct observation with memory and reflection,Townsend seeks to capture the experience of these environments rather than simply describe them.

Every painting remains deeply rooted in its place, exploring light, weather, texture and the shifting topography that continually shapes the natural world. The near absence of human presence heightens the sense of scale, with the occasional trace of human activity bringing the vastness of the landscape into sharp focus.