"Zebra Swallowtail Butterfly" Painting

My work portrays my observations as an artist and a human being of the deep connection between plants and animals and the ecosystems in which they thrive. Each painting draws inspiration from the idea that everything in nature is connected to everything else.

I explore space and form by intertwining gestural marks and drawings with thick layers of paint and subtle transparencies, leading to the intersection of abstraction and the natural world. During the painting process, I am mapping out the underlying paint layers, collage, and drawing mediums. While some of this process is predetermined, other aspects arrive organically through subtracting and adding, carving, and peeling away paper and paint to reveal earlier parts of the work.

As I manipulate paint on the canvas, the compositions begin to encompass a journey through a multitude of layers that combine unconventional methods, gradually revealing a history of spatial interpretations as the final piece emerges. The resulting multi-layered abstract canvases serve as windows into natural landscapes and environments, with pollution and consumerism hanging at the edges.

My works are metaphors for survival and hope. They attempt to elevate the viewer’s awareness of our involvement as human beings in our world’s case for eco-sustainability.

Fran McNamara