Artist Statement

A need for beauty and a re-discovery of my artistic roots, of the landscape, has been the inspiration for this show.

I need an intimate and ‘real’ knowledge of a landscape before I can paint and render it successfully.  This means that I sometimes return to an area many times before I feel comfortable enough in myself to commit my reactions to the canvas.

In this instance, the landscape revisited and recalled is that of the Coorong and the coastal areas of the states’ south east.

I need to experience the same landscape many times in different weather conditions, before paintings are defined.  I do not try to portray the landscape in a strict physical sense, rather, I hope to capture its essence, the light, the colour and the texture and shapes before me, all of which focus me into creating an emotionally accurate response.

Working on this exhibition has been a journey of subtlety, and of rejuvenation.  It has allowed me to abandon the demons of the world and current events, leaving them to fend for themselves.

It has given me time to breathe, and permission to reflect.

To forget and forgive, and to bathe in colour and light.

To see the sun rise and set, and feel its majesty, embrace its beauty, and to equate it with the flash and fall of a nuclear blast.

Allowing myself the luxury, and the indulgence of beauty, to exist for beauty’s sake.

Timothy John

July 2003