Amy Webb
An essential theme of the Havens music is taking the listener on a journey through the natural world, encompassing both a pure love of nature itself, as well as stories and emotions that are elevated by having evocative imagery as a backdrop. As an amateur artist himself, it’s no surprise that early in the process of orchestrating the music Nick realised the potential for commisioning a unique piece of art that would capture the essence of his musical stories and become a unique selling point in its own right.
So Nick began the search for an artist to bring the concept to life. That artist was Amy Webb, a landscape painter working with palette knife and oils, and based in the beautiful Chiltern Hills. Her work blends a stunning colour palette with distinctive impasto textures, bringing pastoral scenes to life in a way ideal for portraying the vivid and varied imagery of Havens.
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From the outset Nick knew that the varied imagery of the Havens songs would be perfect for individual depictions. This led to the idea of creating a polyptych on a single large canvas. The image is an album cover that demonstrated the sort of multi-scene style Nick would show his artist as a first guide.
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The next step forward came with the idea of incorporating the album title into the overall tapestry. The painting required 14 squares for the song images, which fit perfectly around a 3 x 2 block to be used for a stylised depiction of “HAVENS”. The graphic above was the first visualisation of the final layout.
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Nick then needed to convery to Amy what he was imagining for each song image. For this he scoured the web for existing paintings that echoed the types of landscape and colour palettes to be inspired by. For the central HAVENS, Nick’s idea was to depict the letters as ivy covered branches on a backdrop of mossy boulders. The concept image above came to life, which allowed Amy to work on her rough studies for each song, and the title.
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A set of rough studies by Amy. Around this time Nick went to meet Amy at her studio to discuss the final depictions for each song.
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Before committing to canvas, the final piece of the puzzle was deciding on the most aesthetically pleasing placement of the 14 scenes.
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Amy & Nick after the unveiling of the finished painting at the Havens launch night.
