Oil on found object, 75x59cm, frame size 83x67.5cm, (frame unglazed) 2009
My painting practice is very focused on the present moment. When painting 'I could have sworn I felt my spirit soar', I became interested in the history that is attached to paintings that have been discarded. I was also starting to examine how artists would respond to the changing landscape of the earth, given the forecasts relating to climate change.
Here I have combined these two interests by taking paintings of old landscapes and experimenting with how they would be different, should they have been painted in the future. So here, all the living creatures have been blocked out in grey so their silhouette shows where they have been but where they could potentially no longer be sustained.
The over-sized deer is the crux of the painting, in that as the only living thing, it is challenging the viewer to inhabit that world (share the encounter) and consider all that is at stake.
I've never felt led to engage directly with politics through my painting. Instead I have developed a creative process that comes from within and strengthened that with my abstract paintings. I feel that the paintings I have made based on found objects mark the beginning of trying to externalise that creativity in a more worldly context, without compromising the sense of discernment.
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