|
Seeking the Meaning Behind the Pastoral Landscape 
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 have always found inspiration for my art by traveling to new places or revisiting old ones. I am always looking for that special sense of place - that Genius Loci as the Romans called it - that infuses some areas of the natural world with meaning, wonder and beauty. I think there is a mystical quality to landscapes. I believe that quality is a metaphor for something else, but I don’t know how to say what that is exactly in words and so I attempt to communicate this feeling in my paintings. I hope my work can provide some recognition of this wonder and provide escape from the sometime frantic world we all live in. As an artist choosing to paint landscapes it therefore comes naturally for me to create art as a journal of the places I have traveled through. It is also the process of remembering images and feelings while on the move that I use as inspiration in the studio for my paintings. Attempting to extract from them the meaning of what has appealed to me about the scene. 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. Craftsmanship is of equal value to me as self expression in what I am creating. While I am always striving for new ways to paint, I am not trying to break any new ground and I feel it is an illusion to believe that every artist has to do so. I grew up in England and it has influenced my idea of what a landscape is and so I am drawn to pastoral places wherever they may be. I also 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 modifies that force. This makes them very poetic. Trees are metaphors, also, perhaps because they are as individual as humans are. The shape of a tree reflects its history, its condition. Trees are endlessly fascinating- like the landscape around us now.
Allan Stephenson
The Pastel Journal - January 2001 |