Before Darkness Descends depicts a month of living, painting and exploring Finland
Before Darkness Descends reflects the experience of participating in an artist residency at Arteles Creative Center, Finland, in December 2019. Arriving at Arteles was like entering a children’s storybook with all the surrounding landscape covered in a coating of fluffy white snow. I found myself living in a beautiful old school house in the middle of the Finnish countryside with a group of creatives from allover the world. The residency was themed - Silence, Awareness Existence and it involved a component of silent days where we were asked to not speak or interact with any other person at the center. The notion of silence and how it is woven into our lives has been an important theme throughout my work and so this opportunity gave me a new environment in which to really embrace silence like never before.
Before Darkness Descends depicts a month of living, painting and exploring Finland. As sunrise was at 9am and sunset at 3.30pm, I found myself chasing the light, spending my days exploring the countryside, walking as far as I could in a day before the dark of night descended. With each new day I felt the colours and shapes and textures of the Finnish countryside seeping into my psyche. The silhouettes of the trees, the subtleties of the colours, the many lakes and the overwhelming sense of silence. Painting En Plein Air was a challenge as the cold and snow affected most of my outdoor pursuits. But it became my goal regardless of how cold or wet the outside was, to get out, walk and paint as much as I could. I kept a sketchbook of outdoor paintings and also took many photographs which I used as a reference for paintings back in the studio and for the paintings that I have completed in 2020.
Before Darkness Descends reflects the experience of participating in an artist residency at Arteles Creative Center, Finland, in December 2019. Arriving at Arteles was like entering a children’s storybook with all the surrounding landscape covered in a coating of fluffy white snow. I found myself living in a beautiful old school house in the middle of the Finnish countryside with a group of creatives from allover the world. The residency was themed - Silence, Awareness Existence and it involved a component of silent days where we were asked to not speak or interact with any other person at the center. The notion of silence and how it is woven into our lives has been an important theme throughout my work and so this opportunity gave me a new environment in which to really embrace silence like never before.
Before Darkness Descends depicts a month of living, painting and exploring Finland. As sunrise was at 9am and sunset at 3.30pm, I found myself chasing the light, spending my days exploring the countryside, walking as far as I could in a day before the dark of night descended. With each new day I felt the colours and shapes and textures of the Finnish countryside seeping into my psyche. The silhouettes of the trees, the subtleties of the colours, the many lakes and the overwhelming sense of silence. Painting En Plein Air was a challenge as the cold and snow affected most of my outdoor pursuits. But it became my goal regardless of how cold or wet the outside was, to get out, walk and paint as much as I could. I kept a sketchbook of outdoor paintings and also took many photographs which I used as a reference for paintings back in the studio and for the paintings that I have completed in 2020.
