Terra Habitatur XVI Painting

(Terra Habitatur XVI). This mixed media and oil painting on board series called “Terra Habitatur” is part of my continuous investigations with materials and textures. I borrow images and stimuli from multitudinous sources, including industrial patterns, landscape or historical accounts, creating a work that may be landscape related, but not a literal one. Most of these works have not been shown before until now. This series makes references to Mesoamerican stories of the feathered serpent known as Quetzalcoatl, which is suggested along the series. Fertility, renewal of vegetation and rain relate to its name. “Terra Habitatur” stands in opposition to “Terra nullius”. As a Costa Rican-Australian, I appreciate that this land had already been inhabited, before any of us who have a western or eastern background had come to Australia. This parallels my native land, Costa Rica, where I was born; which was also inhabited by diversity of first nations before 1492 when the Spaniards arrived. This truth is foundational to Costa Rican visual artists - who are very close to, and influenced by, Pre-Columbian art. Yet I also understand that we are a mix of cultures, creating the society we are today. I greatly appreciate and am inspired by the works of Kandinsky, Antonio Tapies, Terri Winters, Elizabeth Cummings, Angus Nivison, Emily Kame Kngwarreye, Idris Murphy, Yayoi Kusama, some of Damien Hirst’s works, Lindy Lee, Fabio Herrera-Martinez’s “Arte Materico y Abstracto”, Mario Maffiolli-Reyes, Federico Herrero , Cy Twombly, Jasper Johns amongst many others. Some of these artists have used the grid system in different manners and my "Terra Habitatur" series is a response to these observations. When I first came to Australia, one of the exhibits I went to see was Yayoi Kusama’s at the MCA. Some viewers may remember TV personality Larry King. His producers used a grided backdrop of a world map that looked as if it were an electronic board. Part of the idea for me to use a grid in this series came also from that backdrop. Besides, I also saw a rubber mat in the train station in Padova, Italy on one of my trips to the Scrovegni Chapel as I went to see Giotto’s frescos. The rubber mat had been used so much that all that was left was a series of dots in a grid form, which remind me of an urban landscape, of people passing by again and again leaving their mark. The intensity of colours, use of contemporary and traditional materials, natural pigments, gesture and intuitive style represented in my oeuvre, depict influences of Costa Rican, Australian and Western Art. This work is already framed measuring a total (17 inches x 23.8 inches x 5.5 inches) including the black metal frame. (The canvas measures 16inches x 22inches x 1.6inches). Photos taken by Monica Renaud.