BREATH 2018

When we think of the sky, we tend to look up, but the sky actually begins
at the earth. We are walking through it…we breath it deep within us

Diane Ackerman, A Natural History of the Senses (1990)

From the perspective of painting landscapes, Ackerman’s proposition is synonymous with the understanding that we are immersed in our environment as opposed to being observers of a distant sky, as if we could somehow be separate from it.

With each breath, we draw in an infinitesimal part of this elemental force. When our eye catches a glimpse of the sky it can induce feelings of ‘breathing space’,

The paintings in this exhibition were made with this in mind, working on location, immersed in the primary aspects of inclement weather, light and air.

These portable paintings offer a glimpse into the dialogue between the immediacy of painting on an intimate scale and being absorbed in a time and place: both seeing and feeling the sensory elements.

Each painting, like the transience of a single breath, echoes the fluidity of the surrounding environment, the rhythm of nature, and the passage of time.

Ann Holt
November 2018