Artist notes: In the painting of ‘Settled Fraser River Silt in Reef Bay’ much the work is completed loosely with a two inch handmade brush that offers limited control for the painter.
The movement of Fraser River silt out into and across the Strait of Georgia is an annual summer event. The waters travel from the mountains far up into the northern interior of British Columbia. This is the area I am from and I always find it fascinating to be at the beginning of this river that forges its way to the sea gathering volume and silt along the way. The shells and sandstone becomes a chalky warm grey for a short while with everything muted as if behind a dirty sheer curtain. It is a perfect experience to render a child’s view tipped up into a ‘drop in the ocean landscape’.
I strived to keep the tension between figurative and abstract mark making without making a commitment to either and still be able to stay connected to my sense of place.
I couldn’t quite let go of the shapes of the shells and shadows though they become more abstracted in a crushing or breaking apart of forms that are organized in new ways. Using the hard end of brush for deliberate mark making there is an impression of detail without being exact or predictable.
Then it was over. I could find no way in to make even one more mark, except to sign it. So I thought. The next morning, to my surprise , I made one small change.