Winter Walk, No 2

Ivon Hitchens believed that narrow, horizontal canvases such as this helped the eye ‘read’ the landscape, as it moved from left to right -- in the same way that the eye might read a musical score which has a similar format. ‘Winter Walk No 2’ is an abstract panorama of a wooded landscape. Despite the time of year indicated by the title, the scene of Hitchens’ painting reveals a surprising richness of colour in the tree trunks and bare earth. Only the gunmetal grey of the background sky hints at the season. After moving in 1940 from bomb-damaged London to Sussex, his work became increasingly influenced by the beauty of his new rural environment. Referring to his choice of horizontal formats, Hitchens explained that he found a square-shaped canvas unsatisfactory: ‘…because the natural flow of the horizontal is checked. The square shape is itself a unit which needs its counterpoint and in the “time” factor of a square shape it cannot be repeated or echoed in opposition ...therefore I use this long shape.’