Artist Statement

I’ve spent the past year exploring the meaning of habitat. When I started this process, it was difficult to not feel overwhelmed by the catastrophic effects of our behavior on the earth.  Some days this is still the case.  But painting can hold the anxiety, and open the way for new understanding.  

Understanding habitat as synonymous with life. Shared space. Hidden treasures. The vitality of water. Places of memory and transformation. Home to the forgotten and the invisible.  Habitat as “The place where one is usually found.”

Painting pushes me to the edges of knowing. Where I begin to know more of what I feel, what I imagine and long for.  Where I find connection, appreciate mystery, recognize the unbidden. It’s an opportunity to contemplate the soul of what emerges in my process. 

Creatures and lands wild and tame find their way into my work, sometimes as the intended subject of a painting, often emerging from abstract marks.  I paint from observation, photographs, memory and emergent impulses. I find openings by trusting unconscious gestures and bold brushstrokes. There is a lot of adding and removing of paint. Most of the paintings have many layers, with remnants of earlier stages of knowing as a visible reminder of where I’ve been.

There’s something that feels sacred about this process of making art.  Inspired by nature, rooted in memory, connected by emotion. Like any craft or work of art honestly pursued, I believe there’s an opportunity for the soul of the materials and the inspiration of the subject matter to speak through the artist’s unconscious movements and gestures.  It’s a gift when a swath of blue shows up in a painting, and it is the spot near Spring Creek where I’ve walked dozens of times listening to birdsong.

The creatures and places in this collection each have their own story.  I hope I have been able to capture a piece of the story, in a way that unites us all. 

Bethany Rowland  - October 2015