The art of connection

One concept that I’ve previously explored in my paintings is our emotional connection to nature. However, my relationship with the area of landscape that I’ve been recently exploring has another level of connection ingrained in it.

In the early part of last century my Great Grandparents farmed this land. My Grandma grew up in the farmhouse that once stood here. In her later years of life I spent many an afternoon looking through old photographs of her as a child and then a young woman in these very same fields that I visit every day.

The passing of time has become part of the language of capturing these landscapes in my paintings. I pour over old maps of the area trying to place what I remember from the old black and white photographs. The images of cow pastures and orchards have been erased, replaced by expanses of arable crops. The old field boundaries still remain in part, they can be seen in the form of ditches, with their edges defined by raised banks they look like old scars and it becomes evident that this landscape holds many secrets.

Back in the studio these thoughts stay with me and my work takes a trajectory of its own. Painting the landscape in the traditional manner seems too one dimensional, instead I use an instinctive approach of mark making. The resulting paintings have their own history and are made up of layer upon layer of oil and wax, built up over time and scraped back to reveal its own archaeology.

Fragments I - 30 x 30 cm - Oil and mixed media on wooden panel

Tori TiptonJune 26, 2020