09 September 2019

III INTERNATIONAL PAINTING PLEIN AIR "VALDIS BUŠS 2019”, Vilaka, Latgale, Latvia

Semenova 2019 Acrylic on Canvas 100 x 100 cm. Vilaka Municipality Art Collection.

Day 7. Working on Rekova 22.07.19

Vilaka 2019 Acrylic on Canvas 100 x 100 cm. Vilaka Municipality Art Collection.

In July 2019, I was selected with five other international painters to take part in the 3rd International Plein Air at Vilaka, Latvia. The project is under the direction of Daugavpils Mark Rothko Art Centre with curator, Māris Čačka. The Plein Air celebrates the work of the renowned Latvian painter Valdis Bušs, whose work I reference in the statement for catalogue below.



The residency was short and intensive with other international painters, something I have not done before as usually it is with artists from different disciplines. It is international and competitive for selection, so the work produced was varied and critically robust (each participant has to leave at least two works for the collection; all left more than four). Different approaches to painting furthered ideas for location based practice and further network.


Rekova 2019 Acrylic on Canvas 50 x 50 cm. Vilaka Municipality Art Collection.



Catalogue Statement: 
Painting has led me to many locations and places. The region around Vilaka is striking in rich abundance of nature and it has provided a fertile environment in which to work Plein Air. We were introduced to the work of Valdis Buss and I was struck with the immediacy and vibrancy of his paintings. We have had good quality and plentiful acrylic paints and canvasIt is always exciting to use new paints and here I have used silver for the first time as a pictorial colour (continued)


Balvi 2019 Acrylic on Canvas 50 x 50 cm. Vilaka Municipality Art Collection.
Day 7. Working on Semenova 22.07.19


My recent work has been evolving through location based practice and the desire for a more expressive and perhaps less controlled method that allows the material to lead the way in the construction of an image. Through the idea of ‘scapes’, paintings attempt to respond to Place, and involve multi-sensory perception. We have seen so much of the local culture and the experiences of sight, sound and atmosphere are from the food, landscape, music and song. Attempting to resonate with this experience is a large part of the drive in these four paintings.  


Vilaka in progress

Vilaka in progress

Rekova in progress

Rekova in progress

Semenova in progress


Semenova in progress