‘The Force of Nature’ is a collection of 38 watercolour works by John Hudson in an exhibition being presented at the Cavalieri Hotel in St Julian’s until 21 November.

The exhibition is a personal crystallized expression of the Maltese and Gozitan landscape as seen through the mind’s eye of John Hudson.

It is a profound, spontaneous, simple and direct expression that issues deep from the heart and mind. A keen and acute evocation of atmosphere and mood by reducing to essentials what the eye sees as interpreted by the mind’s eye. John captures the spirit of a place, its soul and traps it, so to say in a bottle to fix it and make it permanent; rather to breathe into it a sense of eternity and infinity.

Concise and economic his landscapes are the musings of a qualified designer turned architect as his landscapes are structured compositions built up in layers like lava, incised with line and saturated in controlled colour, leached and saturated in water and a kind of oily element to produce a curious texture or viscosity. It is about wet on wet, with running colours and textures usually disciplined by line.

Although his work is highly mental and intellectual it never departs completely from a sensual physical reality dominated by perspective in space suggesting depth and distance. The artist loves rocks and rock formations, loves Mother Earth but his main scope is to dig deep and search for the mystery, magic and enigma of life’s journey by reading into the symbolism of its fossils, its primeval elements, the way it was moulded by heat, pressure and stress. His cliffs speak eloquently of patience and perseverance, of withstanding bravely against denudation, struggling against the elements and defying time and space. John etches their character.

The contrast between land, sea and sky is total and dramatic. The rock is hard but the sea, sky and clouds are liquid and soft. The grandeur of cliffs, of infinite space is merely a means to an end: to capture solitude and silence, peace and serenity. He evokes our blinding light in narrow alleys of Mdina and evokes a spell that only time and wisdom can bestow on man. At times he casts a film or veil which suggests that mitigated light before dusk or sunset that fills the heart with sweet melancholy or a disappearing light that like a time switch blankets the land in darkness.

The artist seems inspired by stormy weather, by storm water, by angry waves breaking on rocks, by rough seas, by calm water, by mill-pond liquid reflections, by magnetic tape reflections, by misty and hazy skylines, by solitary trees, by simple boats, by silhouettes, by spirits. He is inspired by Gozo and Malta, by idyllic scenes, by peculiar nooks and corners, by cliffs and rounded hills, by hill-top villages and citadels.

John is concerned about values. He perhaps has a clear perception of what is precious. Surely it is not gold, silver, diamonds, jade or other minerals but patience, care, compassion, sympathy and magnanimity. It is humility, perseverance, determination and enthusiasm. It is wisdom. It is being there when wanted to help others, to yearn and obtain excellent results in whatever we do. Poor is rich and rich poor.

In reflection and meditation, with alchemic powers he transforms physicality into sentiments, feelings and emotions. He reduces detail into the essential, he evokes serenity and tranquillity while at the same time he admires and is inspired by the wild forces of nature, by the elements, by spirits that run wild over the land.

John reduces nature to its essence.