Tucker’s conscientious, immersed landscapes are formed, quite literally, by the landscapes they depict - the effect of rain or of sand and dirt being blown into the paint is often still evident. Experience of place, and the way it etches itself on to the mind after a day spent drawing from it and in it, is essential to Tucker, who conscientiously avoids the photographic process' ability to capture the view in an instant.

“My work is based upon the British landscape; its shape and form and the effects of the weather and light upon it. My aim when working back in the studio is to preserve the frisson of the first encounter, to try and capture the timeless nature of a place, the presence and essence or what Paul Nash called the “genius loci”, hopefully without slavish verisimilitude. Most of my work is started in the landscape – “plein air”. Some are reworked in the studio or based upon drawings done in the outdoors but others are finished in one sitting outside. 

Drawing is the foundation of all my artwork. I see drawing as an end in itself, a stand-alone means of expression. Good drawing involves two complementary processes: the first is to search and discover, and the second is the consolidation of the results into a unity. I find that etching and working in series is one way I can do this. Etching is a beautiful and mysterious way of drawing. The whole process is full of serendipitous surprises, which excite me anew each time I embark upon a plate. 

In drawing and painting, there are no longer rules and boundaries. This freedom can sometimes be too much - where do you start? You are so uniquely responsible for each mark on the surface; it is so much a reflection of you as an individual. With a print, you can blame the process when something looks crap – the acid was too strong or too weak, the blankets were to wet, the ink too stiff… so many variables. However, this is also printmaking’s strength – serendipity, the artist’s friend and companion, is ever present in the process.”