Filling in the blanks

A few artists I think of when I think about landscape are Richard Diebenkorn, Mark Rothko, and Richard Long. Richard Diebenkorn's Ocean Park series adopted a format that evoked the outer space of his Californian studio as viewed through his studio window, all lines and layered spaces of human suburbia, its topology flattened; distant space made close through surface-driven abstract painting. Mark Rothko produced some interesting and deceptively monochromatic works late in his career and are among my favourites of his. They appeared around the same time the Moon landings were broadcast on TV and like most Rothko paintings went untitled except for a description of the 'top' (as in, assumed) colours, which were 'black on grey'. Fittingly, most people who actually had a TV at the time were likely watching the Moon landings in black and white. These paintings evoke a sense of distant spaces brought closer together, the Moon somehow pulled even closer to home than when vi...

Landscape is, quite literally, shovelled land. And so it is land that has been altered in some way by human intervention. It is an abstract mass. Landscape can also describe regions of space that make up both our inner and outer worlds. It is a mutable. It has indivisible boundaries exerting invisible influences that are our connections to the environment. It has peaks and troughs and rivers that flow within and around it. We inhabit it, and it dwells within us and is part of a shared memory, both local and massive. For these reasons I almost always work from memory as the experience of being in landscape leaves an indelible mark on the person.   Additionally, like land, paintings change over time. They undergo constant (re-)development. They become transient, a build-up of layers of lost spaces. The past gets obscured as the surface takes priority, processed via the serial influence of the preceding layers. These different spaces continually influence one another. A painting there...

Extract: I started this residency making small paintings on paper that were related to my surroundings. Drawings and sketches as paintings no bigger than A4. This is often how I begin a new piece of work before they are  expanded into larger pieces made on the floor using oils and acrylics.  I usually work from the floor as it feels free. The paintings develop spontaneously driven by  thoughts, feelings, and the mental and physical connections of my  inner landscape to become part of the environment. My work then moved to the outside and I found something to capture. The trees that line the banks of the river Traun. In years past the fast-moving river was transportation and a conduit for pollutants from paper factories. Some still make paper but the river is now cleaner. The trees stayed to watch it all pass by. some trees became paper trees