Andrew Gifford : Moss Light, Painting the Atlantic Rainforest

November 28, 2025 - 13 December 2025

8. Oak in Height of Spring, Wistman's Wood, Dartmoor, 2024

THE SOUTH WEST
Cornwall & Devon, June & October 2024
Nothing had prepared me for its abundance or its otherworldly enchantment, as alien to the surrounding moorland as a jungle. Stunted, ancient oaks sprang from moss-covered boulders, their crooked trunks clothed from root to branch in ferns, bilberries, and spongy moss. It was so damp that young plants grew on the backs of others. Bulbous limbs, crooked and broken, were adorned with lichens I had never seen before—luminous green-white threads hanging like bunting, decorating every surface. I moved carefully between the rocks, mindful not to damage this fragile landscape.
23. Dappled Light in Birch Wood, Fasnacloich, 2025

SCOTLAND
Oban, Ardnamurchan, Mull & Acharacle - September & October 2024
I found ways to describe moss using transparent glazes of Indian yellow and green, layering and spraying them to build depth and light. In the birch woods, the paint itself seemed to grow: marks evolving out of chaos, woven back into form. Painting outdoors demands speed; light changes constantly, but that urgency gives the work a living pulse and an energy essential to the paintings’ power.
- Andrew Gifford, 47. Late Summer Light on Alders and Birch, near Oban, West Highlands IV, 2025
- Andrew Gifford, 53. Light on Coppiced Hazel, Glasdrum Wood, 2025
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61. Hazel in a Mossy Valley in Borrowdale,Cumbria,2025

CUMBRIA & WALES
Borrowdale, June 2024 & Blaenau Ffestiniog, Gellilydan Blaenau Ffestiniog, Dolyddellan Dolgellau, Ganllwyd June, 2025

Although many woods have moss, the true mark of temperate rainforest is when plants grow from moss-covered boughs: ferns, bilberry, pennywort, even small trees. Over decades, these moss layers create miniature landscapes of their own, with enough nutrients for other plants to root and thrive. Their undulating, sculptural forms became the focus of several of the large Welsh works.
- Andrew Gifford, 70. Dappled Light on Oak Tree Stump, Dolgellau, Ganllwyd, 2025
- Andrew Gifford, 68. Mossy Boulders, Dolgellau, Ganllwyd, 2025
85. Light on Mossy Beech Trunk, Glengariff, West Cork, 2025

IRELAND
Glengariff, West Cork July 2025
I travelled to the west coast of Ireland, where the full force of the Atlantic weather hits the land. After the last Ice Age, this coast had been blanketed in rainforest, but the remaining fragments still evoke this verdant, ancient heritage. The weather was overcast and drizzling much of the time, but I found a stand of alders growing from a bog of sphagnum moss that glowed with an otherworldly intensity.
- Andrew Gifford, 80. Hazel Coppice with Light on Sphagnum Moss Glengarriff, West Cork, 2025
- Andrew Gifford, 81. Marshy Copse of Alders Glengarriff, West Cork, 2025
- Andrew Gifford, 82. Alders on Sphagnum Moss, Glengarriff, West Cork, 2025
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EVENTS & TALKS
- Artist Talk
  Saturday 6th December, 12:00
  
  Join us for an informal and informative tour of the exhibition lead by Andrew Gifford. Andrew will share details of his journey and time spent in the extraordinary pockets of temperate rainforest here in the UK . He will also share insights into the challenges of painting in these environments and discuss some of the techniques he developed throughout his practice.
  
  Frieze, No.9 Cork Street, London W1S 3LL
  
  Book Here
- A TALK BY MERLIN HANBURY-TENISON
  SATURDAY 13TH DECEMBER, 12:00
  
  Frieze, No.9 Cork Street, London W1S 3LL
  
  Book Here
The exhibition will be held at two locations:

John Martin Gallery, 38 Albemarle St, London W1S 4JG and Frieze, No.9 Cork Street, London W1S 3LL. Both venues will be open Tuesday - Saturday 10am-6pm from 28th November until the 13th December (closed on Mondays). Free Entry.

Enquiries: 0207 499 1314 info@jmlondon.com

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