Jenny Topfer’s paintings have long been hostage to the environment. There are various sites she has chosen for her life that inform, indeed beget, her response to contour and scale, to colour and composition – sites that are shaped by weather and geology. Jenny is a sensitive traveller across that ground and when walking with her, I’m most mindful of the hot tea that awaits me at the end of the hike, whilst she, Rilka and Griff are deeply committed to the trail, the pinecone chasing and the adversity of the landscape. For Jenny there is pleasure and reward, a sustenance in the landscape, but there is also a reflective opportunity that is delivered by time in the landscape that I suspect comes more easily than in the studio.
