GREG EDMONSON
Greg Edmonson is primarily known for his paintings of fractured landscapes and portrait paintings, and his Soviet Pangaea series of paintings which featured large scale portraits of faces from history and his imagination. His most recent work reveals the emergence of the human figure, or the human presence, in the landscape.
Greg Edmonson (born 1960) grew up in Calgary, Alberta. He received his Masters Degree in fine arts from the University of Alberta in Edmonton in 1985. Later he travelled to Europe, and lived in Italy, where he studied the masters of the Renaissance.
His paintings are seen today in many prominent collections including those of Microsoft, the Toronto Dominion Bank, the Canada Council Art Bank, the Department of External Affairs (Canada), the Alberta Art Gallery, the Alberta Art Foundation, the Glenbow Museum, the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, the University of Lethbridge, and the Albright Museum. His paintings have been exhibited at the University of Waterloo, the Medicine Hat Museum and Art Gallery, the Edmonton Art Gallery, the Nickle Arts Museum, the Glenbow Museum, the Walter Phillips Gallery, Neutral Ground and various art fairs including the S.I.A.C. Art Fair in Rome, Italy.
ARTIST STATEMENT: September 20th, 2007
The dynamic landscapes or transformative landscapes are evolving, transitional landscapes. In many of the paintings there is the reference to how mankind has in some way been transformed or affected by his relationship with the landscape. In these paintings the individual is either seen as the one who has helped transform the landscape, or as a victim of a dynamic landscape.
In some paintings, such as "Blue House", "Red Roof", "Structure", "English Bay", or "Smoke", mankind is represented as an influence in the shaping of the environment, or in some way affecting the landscape. "English Bay" depicts fire-works, "Smoke" reveals the plume of smoke from a distant factory. In other paintings architectural structures like bridges and buildings litter the landscape.
In other paintings mankind is seen as a victim of the natural environment, such as in "Ice Surfer", "Ship Wreck", and "Lagoon". "Lagoon" depicts a flooded region from the interior of B.C. this summer, while "Ice Surfer" is based on a photograph of a homeless man who had walked out onto the ice by the Bow River this Spring. The ice broke free leaving the man stranded on the large chunk of ice floating helplessly down the river.
In "Blue House" nature is shown as reclaiming man's habitats. The abandoned house is being overtaken by the vegetation and forest surrounding it.
In "Blue Raft" the landscape is depicted as a moving and dynamic entity. The raft is the only thing that offers the viewer a fixed point as the natural world swirls around the boat and its occupant. In many of the recent paintings nature is seen as a fluid entity often associated with water.
The transformative landscape usually refers to the natural world in these paintings, though in some of the works the urban world is revealed as an influential factor where man is seen as being in some way transformed or affected by his manmade environment. In the low contrast image of the "The Thief" the viewer is nearly blinded by the glare off of the white pavement of the driveway and streets. This image was based on a video from America's Funniest Videos where an elderly woman was caught on camera stealing the neighbor's newspaper.
In another painting, entitled "The Lab", a scientist's laboratory shuts out the view of a park which is barely noticed behind a screen or curtain. The lonely seated figure of the scientist is dwarfed by the large space that encircles his inventions. This painting, based on an old photo of the scientist Tesla, shows nature as being something banished from an interior, constructed space. Here, the environment and landscape is of mankind's own making.
Most of the source material for the recent paintings are derived from the media whether they be from television, books, newspapers, or magazines.
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