HEATHER COWIE

ARTIST STATEMENT

My art and arts practice has always been embedded in the natural world and is a response to my past and present experiences in wild places.  I am moved and inspired not only by the visual beauty and wonder of the forms which surround me but also by the dynamics and processes through which these forms have developed.  The colour-worlds which develop as I work are visual memories drawn from encounters with landscapes I have known.

Fundamental to much of my work is the exploration of time and what happens through time.  I am also fascinated by the traces which remain in the ‘here and now’ which hint at past events.  As a geologist I was a ‘reader’ of the history of the earth in rocks, so as an artist I feel I am a ‘writer’ of the history of a painting.  The works for this exhibition are from a series I call “Meditations on Landscape” and are very closely connected to my sense of an underlying ‘text’ in an environment.

My paintings consist of oil paint mixed with cold wax medium. I use a process dependent on layering and time - the paint is applied with a silicone scraper then left to ‘set’ until it is ready to take the next layer and so on.  I often mark each layer in some way depending on where the painting to journeying towards.  Lifting paint off is almost as important as laying it down as this allows for parts of the underpainting to be exposed.  To do this I use various types of paper, each behaving slightly differently and dependent on the pressure I apply and the manner of my movements across the surface.  This working ‘blind’ allows for instantaneous expressive markings which are more ‘body’ than ‘mind’ interactions.  It is an exciting process of addition and subtraction, all the time building textures and form.  I don’t paint paintings that look like ‘real’ places, they are ciphers and signings, symbolising an emotional connection to ‘somewhere’.