Strata, 100 new paintings by landscape artist Jeremy Gardiner (b.1957), celebrates the spectacular Jurassic Coast on the 25th anniversary of its designation as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Gardiner has studied this coast for decades, constantly developing new approaches to depict its changing textures. For Strata, he visited twenty locations each year from 2018 to 2022, painting in different seasons, weather conditions, and as landfalls altered the coast. Geology is embedded in Gardiner’s work through laser-cut fossils specific to the locations depicted. Breaking new ground through its conceptual rigour and assimilation of techniques informed by science, geomorphology, virtual reality and digital imaging, Strata engages with coastal landscape at a time when it is viewed increasingly as a precious, threatened asset. Lavishly illustrated, Judith LeGrove’s essay, ‘The Texture of Time’ explores the influence of contemporary art and photography on Gardiner as well as the legacy of fossilists, film makers, writers and conceptual artists connected with the Jurassic coast. An essay on deep time and the Anthropocene, by award-winning writer and Professor of Literature and the Environment, Dr David Farrier, enhances the book’s significance. A ‘plate’ section, at the end of the publication, illustrates each of Gardiner’s 100 paintings in colour.
