The project features monumental 84” paintings of mountains and glaciers. Additionally, a series of large etchings 24” also depict large landscapes and included here are sketchbook pages completed in situ that were the genesis for the larger works.
The scale of the paintings is intended to confront the audience with the physicality of singular and bold structures that are found in nature, but then invite them into the infinite number of details and complexities infused inside the picture. This interplay of scale and minutiae creates a push and pull within the paintings and etchings.
Additionally the works are a testament to drawing and the act of painting. The project speaks to the representation of nature through observation and transferring that imaginary onto the canvas through the hand of the artist. An enormous mount of work was done on each work drawing and redrawing, painting and de-constructing the space to build both the simplicity of the structure and complexity inherent in a landscape. The goal of the works is to provide a venue for the exploration of seeing and then engaging the audience to an appreciation of the creative possibilities inherent within drawing and painting. The show wants to reveal the process of image construction from sketchbook inceptions to showing the paintings as the culmination of the dynamic act of making. These representations of mountains and glaciers want to engage an appreciation of nature within the audience and use the imagery as a venue to explore mark making. The etchings again develop similar aesthetic sensibilities of scale, simplicity and complexity. The details inside the landscape are constructed though intricate drawing while the sweep of the mountain caught in the light is highlighted using aquatint.
The works themselves evolved from travelling and trekking in the Himalayas in 2014 and 2017 and also walking on several trips in the Alps. When in the mountains I took photographs and made sketches and these pictures and studies are the basis of the works here.
Images of the paintings and artist in studio at Printermedia Residency at Howe Street Studios in Vancouver.
These are a few of the sketches as they are the genesis of the larger works and further develops ideas of process involved in art making, drawing, painting, and printmaking