Plantasia Series (2022 - 2024)
It has been a long time since I have written anything here. It feels like a good time to check in and verbalize the ideas behind the works I have been doing for the past year.
In 2022 my paintings got slightly bigger (I can no longer find paper that is manufactured to the size I was originally working in for my larger works) and more dense.
A lot of the new works are more intense in colour, skew darker, and where there is light it is more like a beam of a spotlight rather than the diaphanous light of morning sun that is typical in my work.
Energetically what I wanted to imbue to this series is the feeling of a transcendent and symphonic happiness that I feel towards plants. Almost like a religious experience within the context of William James’. I’m not personally religious in any way however I am at a lack of words for another way of describing the same level of being overwhelmed.
At the turn of the 20th century philosopher and psychologist William James described religious experiences as “revelations caused by divine agency rather than ordinary natural processes. They are considered real encounters with God or gods, or real contact with higher-order realities of which humans are not ordinarily aware.” James goes on to describe these experiences as transient, ineffable, noetic (the feeling that you have learned something valuable from the experience), and happen passively. (Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religious_experience)
Take the godliness out of the equation and you have the sentiments that I wanted to capture in this series of watercolours. Often I think my work aligns with Romanticism thematically, and I am particularly interested in the Sublime - that feeling of awe, terror, and danger when faced with powerful imagery.
This transcendent energy that I wanted to capture within my paintings has taken shape in images that I think are bolder, more vivid, and direct than paintings I have done in the past. The new works draw closer and more physically intimate with the plants. I chose images where I could feel the plants touching me when I look at them. I can feel the Heliconia rostrata touching my head from above, the leaves of the lemon tree brushing my arms, and my hand lifting the leaves away to look more closely at the gentian. The intimate perspectives of these images are what trigger the sense of a “religious experience” for me.
Lastly, I want to briefly touch on the matter of rainforests. I have been mulling over the reason why I keep painting rainforest plants. As I have never been to a rainforest, I like going to conservatories, but I live in Canada… a very non-tropical climate. So why am I like this? I think the magic of rainforests and topical conservatories is that they are living libraries. They illustrate the vital importance of plants in every aspect of our lives since they are home to and support, mend, and build so many aspects of lives in every corner of the earth.
The Plantasia Collection is a wonderful way to embrace nature.
