Sax Impey 'To The Water'

Sax Impey To The Water

Here dips the rocky highland 

Of Sleuth Wood in the lake, 

There lies a leafy island 

Where flapping herons wake 

The drowsy water rats; 

There we’ve hid our faery vats, 

Full of berrys 

And of reddest stolen cherries. 

Come away, O human child! 

To the waters and the wild 

With a faery, hand in hand, 

For the world’s more full of weeping than you can understand. 

Where the wave of moonlight glosses 

The dim gray sands with light, 

Far off by furthest Rosses 

We foot it all the night, 

Weaving olden dances 

Mingling hands and mingling glances 

Till the moon has taken flight; 

To and fro we leap 

And chase the frothy bubbles, 

While the world is full of troubles 

And anxious in its sleep. 





Where the wandering water gushes 

From the hills above Glen-Car, 

In pools among the rushes 

That scarce could bathe a star, 

We seek for slumbering trout 

And whispering in their ears 

Give them unquiet dreams; 

Leaning softly out 

From ferns that drop their tears 

Over the young streams. 





Away with us he’s going, 

The solemn-eyed: 

He’ll hear no more the lowing 

Of the calves on the warm hillside 

Or the kettle on the hob 

Sing peace into his breast, 

Or see the brown mice bob 

Round and round the oatmeal chest. 

For he comes, the human child, 



For the world’s more full of weeping than he can understand. 

W.B Yeats ‘The Stolen Child’

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Anima Mundi are delighted to present 

’To The Water’, the latest solo exhibition 

from environmental artist and mariner 

Sax Impey. 

These works are derived from first hand 

experiences at sea - having sailed many 

thousands of miles around the world, 

these journeys continue to have profound 

resonance for the artist. Some of the works 

in this show are based on experiences from 

his most recent transatlantic trip made last 

year, where others draw from a broader 

history of sailing voyages, for Impey this 

show has become more of “a general hymn 

to the oceans”. 

There is also a sense with this exhibition 

of the journey that takes place on land, 

and in the studio, where experience must 

be translated in to form. There is notable 

evidence of continued experimentation 

in the diversity of mark making in this 

body of work in the search for something 

immersive and elemental, where the use 

of medium reflects the behaviour of 

phenomenon. Impey recollects his awe at 

the confidence and immediacy captured in 

the seascapes of 19th Century Norwegian 

artist Peder Balke, and a desire for his work 

to incorporate this expressive and dynamic, 

sinuous energy alongside an adeptness 

for precision. 

As Impey has said, “sailing allows the 

experience of a constant duality, of both 

intimacy and immensity, and while you’re 

up close and personal with it, you’re 

always aware of yourself as something 

of a speck in the vastness”, and the 

changing scale of works is his attempt to 

embrace that duality. 

Accompanying the paintings is a film work, 

which is structured to echo the Beaufort 

scale of wind speed, so begins flat calm, 

and proceeds with gradually increasing 

intensity. It is bookended by two passages, 

and interspersed with visitations, which 

reflect the correlation Impey holds with 

dolphins and the faeries of Yeats’ poem 

‘Stolen Child’ from which the exhibition 

title derives - entrancing, enchanting 

apparitions from another world, a siren 

call to a realm we cannot fully inhabit, but 

remain deeply connected to. 

Indeed, it is through these works that we 

are invited to experience this unmediated 

attempt at reconnection with our natural 

world. As Albert Einstein wrote “A human 

being is a part of the whole called by us 

universe, a part limited in time and space. 

He experiences himself, his thoughts and 

feeling as something separated from the 

rest, a kind of optical delusion of his 

consciousness. This delusion is a kind of 

prison for us, restricting us to our personal 

desires and to affection for a few persons 

nearest to us. Our task must be to free 

ourselves from this prison by widening our 

circle of compassion to embrace all living 

creatures and the whole of nature in its 

beauty.” A seemingly complex task perhaps, 

but nonetheless one aided by these works, 

and the continued courage and endeavour 

of the artist who made them. 

Joseph Clarke, 2023 

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Songs From The Water (1) 

mixed media on paper, 17 x 25 cm 

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Light, Calm (1) 


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Light, Calm (2) 


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Landfall (5) 


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Gale (1) 

mixed media on panel, 91 x 122 cm 

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Gale (2) 


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In The Night (1) 


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Trinity (1) 


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Landfall (1) 


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Landfall (2) 


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Landfall (3) 


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Landfall (4) 


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Still Waters (1) 


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Horizon Light 


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Horizon Light Study 


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Lightning (1) 


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Lightning (2) 


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Lightning (3) 


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Trinity Study (1) 


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Trinity Study (2) 


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Trinity (2) 


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Last of the Light 


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Selected Biography 

Sax Impey is a British artist born in Penzance, Cornwall. He currently works from one of the 

prestigious Porthmeor Studios in St. Ives. From 2005, he has collaborated with the crosscultural, 

environmental art group Red Earth in the creation of site-specific installations 

including a multi media performance at Trafalgar Square, London and Birling Gap in 

Sussex. In 2007 Impey’s work was selected for the ‘Art Now Cornwall’ exhibition at Tate St 

Ives where he was placed on the cover of the associated publication. The same year he was 

heralded in The Times as one of the ‘New Faces of Cornish Art’. In 2010 he was featured in 

Owen Sheers’s BBC4 Documentary ‘Art of the Sea (In Pictures)’ alongside Anish Kapoor, 

J. M. W. Turner, Martin Parr and Maggi Hambling among others. His work was selected as 

a finalist the 2013 Threadneedle Prize and the year before was elected an Academician at 

the Royal West of England Academy. Most recently Impey was included in ‘The Rime Of 

The Ancient Mariner : Big Read’ project alongside artists including Glenn Brown, Linder, 

Cornelia Parker, Marina Abramović, Yinka Shonibare, Charles Avery, Gavin Turk, Fiona 

Banner, Mark Dion, Derek Jarman, William Kentridge and John Akomfrah accompanied by 

readings from renowned voices including Jeremy Irons, Willem Dafoe, Hilary Mantel, Simon 

Armitage, Tilda Swinton, Iggy Pop, Marianne Faithfull, Alan Cumming, Rupert Everett and 

Alan Bennett. Impey’s paintings are in multiple collections including The Arts Council, 

Warwick University, the Connaught Hotel alongside other private collections worldwide.

Published by Anima Mundi to coincide with Sax Impey ‘To The Water’ 

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or 

by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the publishers 

Photography by Claira Matheson 

Anima Mundi . Street-an-Pol . St. Ives . Cornwall . +44 (0)1736 793121 . mail@animamundigallery.com . www.animamundigallery.com

www.animamundigallery.com

Sax Impey 'To The Water'

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