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For many art is an attempt to make visible the invisible. What are the underlying forces? How can one express the mystery beyond surface appearances? It is in nature that I am most able to sense this mystery. As a painter I attempt to relay this sense of enigma, not through imitation but through expression. In expressing nature there is less interest in external appearances and more focus on energies, feelings/sensations, and qualities such as dark and light, warm and cool, bright and muted, freedom and control. An important recurring theme in my work is the passage, whether it be a foot path for human/animal passage, or the passage of a river's flow or a bird's trajectory. In my artistic vision this becmes a metaphor for the journey of life or the journey of the soul. As such there is often a sense of emerging, passing a threshold or moving towards an opening. Texture is also meaningful, the texture and consistency of the paint itself. In our contemporary virtual experience, texture is illusory. The images on the computer screen and in print have no actual texture which can be touched and felt. Texture is a vital part of the direct visual experience of being in nature. The dimensionality and sensuality of texture adds to the richness of the experience in the sense of being present and connected to one's natural surroundings. Texture is part of my expressionistic approach. To take this further I make my own oil mediums and paints using organic flax oil, refined by hand in small batches, the way they was originally created. |
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