The landscape for Kirsten Elswood, feels like a homecoming.  A childhood filled with outdoor adventures has made wild environments feel like places of safety.  Her landscapes hold the viewer. They are often places of earthy darkness: a dense wood, a moorland den, a mossy grove.  These landscapes give Kirsten and opportunity to explore a high contrast of light and dark: the way that light filters through close packed leaves and branches, casting dramatic shadows and allowing the viewer darts of brightness.  These tonal extremes lend her paintings a tension.  For as much as the landscape is a comfort, there is a darkness in its wilderness.  The clouds rumble in, the light fades, a storm brews.

Kate Reeve-Edwards

(Cultural Capital Arts)