Lake Edge, Bluff Trail

Through hikes in the wilderness of Nova Scotia, I collect memories of landscapes, which, due to the transformative effect of nature through time, no longer exist.  Once I pass through, the light, season, interaction of various animals, change. The painting becomes a trace of what once was… but that trace is more than that.  It is a collected perception formed at that time through the experience of being there. These sensory impressions are themselves dissolving and reforming with decisions based on composition, colour, addition, simplification, subtraction.  Lake Edge, Bluff Trail is a moment filtered, a moment shifted, altered and preserved.

Lake Edge, Bluff Trail, 3' x 4', acrylic on canvas

Streams crisscross the wilderness of Cape Breton Highlands, sometimes pouring down rock faces, other-times spreading out across the floor of the Acadian forest. They reveal and conceal, erode and build, carry and deposit: a life force traveling down to the sea.

Stream in Blue: Acadian Trail, Cape Breton,  18" x 24", acrylic on canvas

Hiking this past summer and fall provided lots of inspiration for new work.  Landscapes provide a starting point: "Art picks up where nature ends.": Marc Chagall.  

Two rocks three logs Bluff Wilderness 30" x 30" acrylic on canvas

Along the Acadian Trail, Cape Breton Highlands National Park, streams rush to join the Chéticamp River.  Tumbled trunks and mossy banks line the brook on its way to the bottom of the valley.

Stream: Acadian Trail  30" x 60"  acrylic on canvas