Notho Series 7 Painting

Born 1960 Montreal,Canada. Over the years the inspiration for my work as an artist has been determined by my personal interests such hand knitting & wool, the aquatic environment and most recently epiphytic plants; in other words my hobbies have taken over my artwork. My earlier knitting pieces investigated structural relationships in plastic terms; the elements in the paintings were a mesh of woven brush marks. Following this series, I began to concentrate on controlled Eco-systems, Aquariums and plant environments. This group of work juxtaposed living real worlds with inanimate imaginary ones and I invited the viewer to spy on its inhabitants. In the recent Epiphyte series, the surfaces move with licks of colour, similar to the environment in which these aerial organisms (orchids) move with the wind. In some instances, the markings of the plants become the starting point from which the piece evolves. I play with the size and shape of these floral icons as either a momentary fragment, or as a rhetorical dialogue of brush-marks.