The Illusion That You Feel Is Real

'The Illusion That You Feel Is Real' is from a series that subconsciously began over a decade ago when I moved to Central Alberta. This move was hugely impactful as I came from the mountainous and coastal landscapes of British Columbia to the great skies, rolling hills and considerable fields of Alberta. I began to capture these skies while working in fields and I had my first digital camera to document what was in-front of me. I felt like the enormous skies could swallow me whole and no matter if it was the sun rising, a storm rolling in or massive clouds sitting miles away at dusk, it was expansive. I have carried these photographs for years, waiting to find the right time and the right way to make them into something more than grainy digitals.

2021 was that year! That year, I stumbled across painting on paper and began this mini-collection with four small test paintings, moving on to their full size 16"x20". The collection was an opportunity for me to get into my oil paints after a number of years hiatus and really see what I could do with them on paper. The natural, fluid and grand imagery of these big skies, allowed me to paint in a very free manner. Oil being the perfect medium for blending colours and creating pillowy clouds and looming skies. The process of Tape masking is a practice I started using years ago in university, it is a reference to my own thoughts and memories on particular subjects. I use this technique in this mini-collection as it allows me to paint out images I captured while layering in the fragments from my memory, bringing the paintings another layer, visual and metaphoric.