Plains series

­These series and body of work developed from my interest in ecology and living systems. As well, it is a response to the limitations of traditional Western landscape painting tropes to address the unseen, embodiment of place, as well as notions of temporality and deep time.

I am interested in how landscape as an image is read and understood. In this work, I seek to recognize a more encompassing understanding of place that does not favour imitation of the world by fixed vantage points and illusionist devices such as linear perspective. Instead of producing the picturesque or the scenic, I am interested in addressing the sensory properties and experiences of the natural environment - how we understand place through sensory properties and the mind. In this context, I am drawn to what the French philosopher Merleau-Ponty described as “the lived perspective.” This understanding of place favours comprehension through consciousness and bodily experience. In this body of work I am not concerned with depicting the physical specifics of a locality; rather, I aim to address the experience or sense of place through the process and language of painting. To address ideas of natural history, deep time, and deep ecology, paint is built up in successive layers, each layer contains information (colour, texture, and density) and influences the colour, texture, and form of the subsequent layers. The division of colour within the picture plane reflects changes in time, season, and natural elements within the place.

 

The project was inspired by travels through the prairie in the southern area of the Canadian province of Saskatchewan, from 2003-2005.