Black Mountain White Mountain

The images may be purchased as either or unframed  framed art works and form part of the Black Mountain White Mountain works from 2011-12. Black Mountain White Mountain looks at our separation from the landscape due to technology. What distinguishes these landscape paintings is the lack of authentic experience that I have had in the Black Mountain area near my home, whilst developing the paintings. The paintings are the result of visual research in a range of media, observational drawing, digital imaging and of course painting. The idea that when we are in the landscape we bring to it all of our recent urban experiences and this experience affects how we look at the landscape. Formally I have approached this by introducing graphic devices such as cross- hatching and gridded grounds. To some extent the arguments contained in the paintings have been influenced by the relationship between data, systems, ecology and our understanding of what nature is. This understanding was initially developed from Freuds notion of the electrical function of the brain. Freuds initial observations were developed, into the notion of balance (systems) in nature, by early ecologists. These ideas are further explored in the documentary “All watched over by the machines of our loving grace” by Adam Curtis. The documentary goes on to illustrate our dependence on social change in society to form our understanding of landscape.