An Appreciation of Thomas Peploe Wood by David Gleeson
	“It is really interesting to look at a body of work by an artist. I was impressed by Wood’s confident line and his fine use of colour in the larger paintings. Wood lived at a time when artists studied The Golden Section*. Most of his work shows his understanding of this method of composing pictures. We can enjoy Wood’s travels and his marvelous ability to capture the essence of a place. The core of most of his work was to capture the spirit and record the look of a particular place. His sketches are really small pictures, not just observational drawings of places. They are very deliberately ‘composed’. Look at the careful placing of birds in the sky, the foreground tree, the group of figures. The size of most of the drawings suggests that he worked on the drawings whilst holding them rather than carrying a bulky easel with him. This would be the simplest and lightest way to wander the countryside selecting subjects. Some of the tone was probably worked on ‘in situ’ but in many of the drawings the majority of the washes will have been added back in the studio. In his sketches, Wood often combines an accurately observed image with a fine use of tonal washes. When using washes, Wood mostly built up one on top of the other, rather than using a gradated wash. This was in the fine English tradition as exemplified by Girtin and Turner at the turn of the 19th century. He would have carefully positioned himself before starting his study, drawn in the main elements with due thought about the Golden Section, then added details. The main tones will have been indicated on site and he will have worked up the piece into a finished, ‘tinted’ drawing back in his studio. In fact, most of his topographical drawings have little regard for ‘local colour’ and show his preoccupation with shape and tone. This collection is a marvelous example of the work of a visual artist precisely ‘recording’ his world in the middle of the 19th Century. At this time there was no other, quicker means of capturing a scene. Topographical views were very popular in the early part of the century and Wood seems to have found a ready niche for his obvious skills. His patrons would have required accurate and recognisable images to show to friends and visiting dignitaries. I like to think of Wood setting off on a drawing trip, small bag holding his art materials, money in his pocket for beer and food, shod in shoes from Stafford (maybe even made by his father) and a small diary to note expenses and things of interest. Wood lived and worked in interesting times!” David Gleeson Artist January 2009
	The Golden Section, image on the right- a popular theory of composition that explains one of the main ways that artists compose pictures. The artist believed that the ‘Golden Ratio’ (about 1.61, approximately a third) was aesthetically pleasing.
© Staffordshire Arts and Museum Service