Landscapes

Art can be an expression of desire. In the case of landscape painting it’s the soul’s desire to escape the daily entrapments of the worldly concerns.
The landscape is a metaphor for the soul going forth. i.e. escaping from the persons circumstances and or own mindset.

Through art we attempt to possess, to inhabit, to identify with or become one with a thing or a place. The ancient cave painters painted what was important to them, the animals that provided their sustenance. In the same way, landscape painting can reflect a spiritual hunger.

It’s not a matter of painting the place as it is; I try to paint the feeling of being in that place. I use the landscape as a way to try to paint the feeling of being. I try to bring the “outside” landscape inside the interior or living space – whether it is a office, hotel room or farmhouse – wherever.

I continually ask myself what “landscape” is? Is it “out there” or “in here”? It has been said that “landscape does not exist, it can only be perceived.” That intrigues me as I work to understand how paint can be used to transmit emotion evoked by perception. I try to translate the emotion into the visual dimension by applying colour and texture in my own unique creative way. My present work seems to be a continual process of building up structure in paint only to make it dissolve into colour and light and space, searching beyond the surface.