‘Coming to terms with Painting Landscape’

Although painting is now his visual art focus, Rod never considered himself a one-trick pony. In fact, he has received grants and presented exhibitions based on work in several visual art disciplines over many decades. And although he was always drawn back toward painting, his practice in other disciplines has unquestionably influenced his entire process. He started to use procedures that a printmaker or graphic designer would be familiar with; offset printing, stencilling, blocking out, revealing, layering, etc. His painting process had expanded, and the content of his landscape work had also evolved. He began to look behind the curtain of ‘what’s seen’ to reveal narratives within the landscape.

In his own words:

“My work has recently shifted from painting landscapes to looking at landscape as a vessel that possesses visual questions and suggests a narrative. This new work is process-driven. There is minimal preliminary planning involved. Rather the paintings more or less paint themselves.
The process is one of mapping a place through constructing layered passages of mark-making and imaging, of revealing and concealing, of tagging objects and unveiling dialogues.
The intention is to create an ambiguous, immersive environment that promotes a discussion with the viewer."

So, we ask you, the viewer, how do you respond?