Elsewhere | North Van Arts, District Library Gallery

November 4, 2021 - January 24, 2022

{click to enlarge}

Road to Elsewhere, 2021
Oil & ink transfer on birch (framed)
32.5" x 24"

Cruising By, 2020-2021 | Sold
Oil & ink transfer on birch (framed)
20" x 16"

Breath of Fresh Air, 2020
Oil & ink transfer on birch (framed)
32" x 40"

Between Wind & Water, 2018
Oil & ink transfer on birch (framed)
24" x 40"

Sentinels, 2021
Oil & ink transfer on birch (framed)
16” x 12”

Passing By, 2020-2021
Oil & ink transfer on birch (framed)
16” x 12”

Forest for the Trees, 2019
Oil & ink transfer on birch (framed)
16” x 12”

Through & Through, 2021
Oil & ink transfer on birch (framed)
33.5" x 24"

On Route, 2019
Oil & ink transfer on birch (framed)
10” x 8”

The Peaks, 2019-2021
Oil & ink transfer on birch (framed)
10.75” x 8”

In Retrospect, 2017 | Sold
Oil & ink transfer on birch (framed)
10" x 8"

Gravitational Pull, 2020-2021
Oil & ink transfer on birch (framed)
28.5" x 48"

Room with a View, 2018-2021
Oil & ink transfer on birch (framed)
18.25" x 24"

Summer Light, 2020-2021
Oil & ink transfer on birch (framed)
8" x 10"

Sulphur & Salt, 2018/2021
Oil & ink transfer on birch (framed)
8" x 10"

In the Blue, 2018
Oil & ink transfer on birch (framed)
8" x 10"

Facade, 2018
Oil & ink transfer on birch (framed)
8" x 10"

My recent oil and mixed media works depict curious, dream-like scenes. They are inspired by sites explored while traveling abroad (pre-pandemic) and by landscapes discovered around British Columbia. Memories, imaginings, and my own photography are fused, morphing into surreal abstract landscape.
 
These unlikely spaces often revisit familiar landscape tropes - with oceans, mountains, forests, and desert terrain meeting my less literal visual language of paint swaths, arcs, and floating forms. These images are intentionally ambiguous, inviting viewer interpretation and personal narrative.

Incorporating ink transfers of my own photography, I blur boundaries between media; I embrace surreptitious transitions between the photographic transfers and the realistic application of oil paint framed by abstract forms. Hints of photography amid the painted fictions lend credibility to these imagined, fantastical worlds.

Celestial, terrestrial, and aquatic motifs are present throughout the series. Ideas of regeneration, cycles, and the search for structure within ephemeral, fluid spaces seem to be recurring considerations.

These fanciful paintings are intended as little moments of escapism—which for me, has taken on increased significance in 2020/2021.