Constable depicted clouds at different times of day and year, annotating his work with notes about when they were painted and the speed of the breeze. These were so accurate that meteorololgists today can work out the weather patterns and conditions of his day.
Guinness’s plein air studies are often painted from the same vantage points as Constable’s. Scenes from Hampstead Heath, Malin Head, and the artist’s studio hut in Ireland are included in a selection of around 100 at the Mayfair show.
She had the idea for the show when she was asked to give a lecture on John Constable and his connections with Hampstead Heath.
“After a lifetime’s interest in Constable and his oil studies at the V&A and Tate, I decided I would paint en plein air the exact same views as Constable had painted,” she says. “I have been following in his footsteps as best I could and have been looking up at the heavens for months, learning the names of the clouds and trying to understand the ever-changing world above my head.”
The Importance of Place runs from March 28-April 26.
