“West of Yours,” explores the interplay of translucency and opacity of oil paint. Culminating from three years of exploration, these paintings feature organic shapes sourced from blind contour sketches of ferns, bark, barnacles, and shells discovered in the lush West Coast rainforest and the Pacific Ocean that envelops the Sunshine Coast in B.C., Canada.
The stencils, derived from these natural forms, serve as both a connection to my environment and a capsule for vibrant colour. When we think of colour in nature, greens and browns come to mind. While my palette may seem artificial, a closer look reveals pinks, purples and bright oranges in our West Coast landscape. My attempt is not to mimic the wild, but to visualize my own experience. I liken the process to writing a poem.
Growing up in areas similar to where Victoria-born artist, Emily Carr lived and painted, the echoes of her exploration resonate in my work. In the early 1920s, Carr’s contemporaries dismissed the landscape of British Columbia as “unpaintable.” A.Y. Jackson of the Group of Seven, in a letter to Carr, both praised her new body of work and lamented, “Too bad, that West of yours is so overgrown, lush—unpaintable.” Carr, however, defied these notions, painting the untamed beauty of B.C. forests and Haida Gwaii, introducing a new aesthetic.
Captured in these paintings is my interpretation, influenced by Carr’s depiction of our unpaintable West.
Contact Marlene from more information or to purchase directly: marlene@marlenelowden.com
This series is also available at Saatchi: https://www.saatchiart.com/en-ca/marlenelowden
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