Impassible Canyon

Artist Statement

I have always sought out serene landscapes and wild creatures in Idaho's pristine wilderness. I backpack in carrying watercolor art materials for quick sketches. From these I create oil paintings using a combination of impasto techniques, some with painting knives, others with more traditional layering approaches. Layers of oil paint add luminance. I am drawn to the heavy, clean, texture of oil paint that has been mixed on glass without any influence from medium, or brush residue. Nature is a composition of textures which oil paint and the knife help to reveal in my goal of impressionism. I've moved traditional watercolors to abstraction by taking simple images from nature and decisively suggesting them in watercolor, ink, salt, and scraping the surface while still wet. I hope the viewer is inspired by the presentation of work that opens a door, provides a pathway into a vast landscape in a large painting. Painting actual places provides true evidence of nature and man together. I do my best to give an impression of my experience with a landscape and to the people it attracts. Finally, I hope to keep the viewer in the painting by finding an eye line that is not escaped until the rewards are felt. It is best to view my work with a long look as these images need to sink in before they connect. Norman Nelson