What started as an intended body of work from a series of photographs taken while travelling from Toronto to Kingston by train (clouds) and while on vacation in Hawaii (turbines) has resulted in something beyond my attempt to recreate the beauty I witnessed in both instances. Despite valiant attempts for realism, instead I let the painting evolve into a beauty that was hiding on the canvas and under the paint. The work takes me there and sometimes the results are a surprise even to me and so I consider myself more of an automatist: the performance of actions without conscious thought or intention.

In the paintings entitled “Clouds”, the image of the house came into each painting and for me indicates a sense of “home” and how it inter plays with the “sky” or more broadly the “universe” and our place in it. The simplicity and repetitiveness of the houses results in them becoming more of a symbol or metaphor rather than an actual individual house – the juxtaposition of the sky and tumultuous cloud formations remind us of how inconsequential we are in the universe despite the importance we place on ourselves and our “home”. “Homes Smoke” series evolved after being in Wells and surrounded by smoke as not far from the summer fires.

The turbines appear as though large exotic plants or insects or perhaps even crosses and create a playful juxtaposition between their overwhelming presence and the landscape. A sense of spirituality oozes and the artist recognizes the significance of the dream like quality of the paintings.

The images invoke a sense of a dream or memory – images not quite formed but significant for the sense of wonder they bring.

Hawaiian Turbines 30 x 15 GIFTED