Otmoor remains a 'place apart' – a quiet and fragile haven for marsh harriers, merlin and peregrine, owls, thousands of ducks, teal and widgeon, and murmurations of starling that coil and roll like polar bears in the winter skies. Andrew Walton moved as a child to Noke from the deprivation of post-war London to a wild wetland of reedbeds, meadows and birdsong.

Recorded in the Domesday Book, Otmoor (Fen A Ota) provided grazing, hunting and foraging for all until Enclosure in 1815 which prompted the Otmoor Riots (1829-30). Today two thousand acres of marshland create a wilderness nature reserve - peripheral wooden walkways ensure an uninterrupted haven for the rhythms of nature that play out under high skies. In winter you hear only the breath of murmurations overhead and haunting calls of water birds.

Walton’s ink drawings are distinct from his oils that capture full colour panoramic views of Otmoor from Beckley and Elsfield. His drawings in black and white are up-close and musical in sensibility, from the titles to the marks he makes on the page. Hog Hole is such a creature. One can hear the rough movement and snorting of the wild hog as he busies himself in mud amongst the reeds.

Walton is fluent with different styles of painting that he selects to achieve his goal. He is master of paring down, so although at home with a contemporary, figurative landscape panning across the moor in oil on board, he shifts seamlessly to an abstracted translation at whim - celebrating the broad stretch of a generous horizon and the rustle of wind in reeds, in no more than a few lines, dots and scratches he creates wonderful minimalist paintings in ink on paper.

Jenny Blyth 2019