Sam Branton
Four Seasons

Four Seasons by Sam Branton

Four Seasons is a revised edition of Sam Branton's book - Three Seasons - a collection of drawings and paintings produced over the last five years based on the same underlying theme but divided into three distinct styles.

The underlying theme is a presentation of animals in unlikely settings or improbable pairings which results in a sometimes surreal and sometimes humerous impression on the viewer. Some of the images include references to animals in classical paintings but an essential feature of my work is to present animals in a playful rather than hostile setting.

The first season, Deluge, is a collection of tranquil monochrome drawings using red pencil. Most of these are drawn to a small scale and they are printed in the book at actual size. The drawings are set in neo-classical landscapes and they never quite tell the entire story, but should instead be considered as a frame or still image from a bigger story to be imagined or created by the viewer.

Season two, Holy Ground, is a collection of small oil paintings, building on the theme of animals in neo-classical landscapes and partial story telling but now introducing an extra element of mystery in some of the paintings by only showing a fragment of an entire painting. This was influenced by seeing remnants of images found in ancient remains in Greece and Italy which create a puzzle for historians to reimagine the complete original picture and the story being depicted.

Season three, Luciferase, builds on the Deluge theme, but now uses black pencil drawings to present the animals in a night-time setting using curious natural light sources to provide illumination. The monochrome images and lighting are sometimes used to create the illusion that the drawings represents a sculpture rather than living animals.
The endpapers in this book are taken from the triptych, Roses Within.