March 2022

16
Wanstead Village Directory
Nepal is a country in the Indian
subcontinent and the Himalaya
forms its northern border with Tibet.
Its history has been filled with political
instability and its geology unpredictable.
Despite all this, the people have remained
hospitable and welcoming, and the
mountain scenery awe-inspiring. The
people of the Himalaya belong to a variety
of ethnic groups: Gurungs, Sherpas, Rais
and a bewildering variety of other Tibeto-
Burman nationalities.
I first visited Nepal in the mid-eighties and
made a trek in Annapurna district. Since
then, I have returned many times and
trekked in the Solu Khumbu, Langtang and
Annapurna districts on many occasions.
Over the years, I’ve seen many changes with
roads making ever deeper incursions into the
mountains and hotels becoming increasingly
sophisticated. The hospitality remains the
same and the scenery is always spectacular.
For many years, I recorded my experiences
with a trusty Pentax K1000 camera. Analogue
moved to digital, and so did my photographic
endeavours, but on the last couple of treks
I decided to take a drawing book and water
colour box to supplement my photography.
All the paintings in the exhibition were made
in London using my own photographs and the
visual notes I made while trekking. However,
perhaps the most important references were
the memories of these experiences.
When I was a student, drawing and painting
the landscape was an important aspect
of my work, and over the past couple of
years that interest has been rekindled. I’ve
always maintained an interest in the genre
through looking at paintings, natural history
and essays on aesthetics. Burke’s work on
the sublime and the beautiful played an
important role in my consideration while
engaged in these paintings.
The paintings are concerned with elements
of formal composition and the notion
of the picturesque, with a reference to
foreground interest and the inclusion of
features such as habitation, architecture
and cultural references in the form
of prayer flags and chortens
(Buddhist commemorative
monuments).
The Himalaya
has a limited
reference to
the context
of the
European
landscape
tradition. Explorers
such as Joseph Hooker
and Edward Norton made
topographical renderings of the
mountains. Edward Lear painted
Kanchenjunga from Darjeeling.
William Simpson made descriptive
watercolours and Nicholas Roerich
engaged the viewer in his mystical and
romantic vision.
As Nepal was a closed country until the
mid-20th century, it received few visitors,
and those permitted entry were limited in
their movement outside the Kathmandu
valley. Photography became the preferred
medium for travel and expeditions and, as
a consequence, Nepal’s Himalaya has been
largely neglected as a subject for painters.
Landscape painting is just one
aspect of my interest in the visual
arts; portraiture, the figure and
narrative are also important
parts of my work.
Chris’s exhibition of Himalayan landscapes
will be on show at Wanstead Library until
20 March. For more information, visit
christhomasart.co.uk
To advertise, call 020 8819 6645 or visit wnstd.com