Glastonbury Tor Painting

In the winter of 1975, while living in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, I pondered how best to remember a place; traditional painting in a rectangular format left me wondering what was going on behind the viewer. During the summer of that year, I witnessed a scene on those vast Prairies that astounded my young sensibilities: while standing on the roof of a tall building I witnessed a rising moon, a setting sun amidst a clear sky where the first stars of dusk began to emerge from the deep blue. Off to the south came the violent flashes of lightening from an advancing summer storm. How was it possible to express such power and magnitude of nature on such a small rectangular canvas? The solution to this daunting question of expansive visualization came by bending the horizon line into a circle. Much experimentation followed armed with 360 degrees of protracted vision. One could look up into a landscape from a concave perspective, or look down on a landscape from a convex perspective. Some years later while experimenting further with the idea of circular perception, I realized that I could tie together the convex and concave aspects of vision into a simultaneous image in the form of a "torus"; essentially looking up and looking down on a familiar landscape at once. The form of the "torus" had many implications in the manner of how I now experienced the world around me. Although it might seems physics and mathematics have had a role in my visual formation for these works, it was always my intuition that has lead me. Foremost, it is always the beauty of the landscapes in which I have lived, worked and played that has kept me watching and listening. When I paint a forest I not only paint the colours and rhythms of the trees, but also the songs of birds who live in the forest. My paintings are now available online as high quality limited-edition reproductions and greeting cards. For further information on the work and artist, please visit my website.