 A
friend of mine once said...." that the only people who
really possess a place are travelers,that the others who live
there are all possessed BY the place.
I
think this has something to do with the fact that experiencing
the same thing repetitively tends to dull the senses and put one
in something of a trance state. For me going to new places breaks
that spell. As an artist choosing to do landscape it therefore
comes naturally to create art as a kind of journal of the places
I have been. It is also a process of remembering images and feelings
while on the move and then processing them in the studio into
paintings.
I experiment with various media but I currently enjoy the medium
of pastel for it's direct hands-on quality. It allows me to blend
and sculpt the pigment using my fingers and hands rather than
the intermediary of a brush. I mix the colors right on the board
or paper by blending, glazing and overlaying colors. This has
taught me a lot about how color works. There is a pleasure when
the picture looks the way one intended it to, when one has gained
sufficient mastery of the tools, skills and materials, that the
image emerges as intended. However, at the same time there is
a parallel joy in allowing accidents to emerge, making use of
serendipity and the life that a picture takes on by itself.
North America has vast and wild landscapes which I love, but my
home country of England fascinates me because not only is the
landscape varied within very small distances, but the addition
of man- made artifacts provides an additional counterpoint to
the landscape. Hedgerows and rock walls laid out hundreds of years
ago delineate the contours of the hills. Artfully placed farmhouses
or cottages that seem to have grown there rather than being placed
there speak to the fact that man can co-operate with nature and
improve, rather than impose and distort by his presence.
I suppose growing up in England has influenced my idea of what
a landscape is, and I am certainly drawn to pastoral places here
in the Northwest, such as Sauvies Island which is very much reminiscent
of the the English landscape. I love trees, especially the deciduous
types that take on different shapes and colors throughout the
year. They seem to express in form the interaction between the
force within to grow and the force outside, the elements, that
modify that force. This makes them very poetic. I find there is
a language in the natural world that I attempt to decipher, and
so I am always looking out for certain combinations and groupings
in the landscape, certain phrasing of imagery that say something
to me.
In this regard there is a long history to draw upon and I take
a traditional approach to rendering what it is I see. I apply
myself to the task of using techniques already laid down by artists
of the past. I am not trying to break any new ground and feel
it is an illusion to believe that every artist has to do so. Basic
craft rather than self expression is what I am attempting to follow.
Hopefully I can be of service and provide a reminder to the viewer,
not just to myself, of the beauty that surrounds us.
See
also the article in Pastel Journal linked on home page.
Allan
Stephenson 1998
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