Audra Urquhart
Norman, Oklahoma
Audra translates familiar landscapes into mind bending abstract experiences with layers of movement, details, illusions, fragmentation and complexity.
MessageAudra Urquhart is a visual artist who seeks to reconnect you with the power and fragility of our only Earth by drawing you into works composed with layers of detail, complexity and relentless movement. Her roots run deep into the red dirt of Oklahoma and Western Arkansas where she learned to put her bare feet into the soil and to reach her hands up into the humid blue skies. There she was deeply imprinted with a palette of wildflower yellows, earth oranges, fecund greens, water blues and the deep indigo of a night sky where you can still see the Milky Way. She earned her B.A. in Studio Art from Grinnell College in Grinnell, Iowa. Audra currently splits her time between Norman, Oklahoma and Cane Hill, Arkansas. Each place serves as a home base for sharing the diverse landscapes that she loves to paint.
Statement
The Earth is a powerful, fragile place. We are of the Earth. We evolved within it, are part of it. Tranquil, stormy, calm, sunny; these descriptions of human dispositions are also words from the natural world. To be held in awe of a waterfall is to feel its power, its strength, and to understand that we are part of that same Eden. We breathe into us the wind, the heat, the moisture. We are not so separate from the water, fire, and air. Their relentless movement is our unarrestable change. To really see a landscape is to connect to it in a spiritual way. To capture that art must be more than just a metaphor. I want to convince you that a canvas should not be approached as though it’s only a window to look through or a surface to look upon. My paintings mix abstraction, realism and illusion as a vehicle for experiencing, rather than looking at landscapes. I endeavor to pull you into my artwork by working simultaneously so very tiny to draw you physically close and monumental to envelope you inside the pieces. It is a dance, moving you back and forth and in and out. I play with the visual language of the natural world, both strange and familiar; personal and universal; abstract and concrete; I want you to feel not just see that the world is beautiful and amazing and powerful and worth protecting.
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