TWILIGHT III

or There is a society where none intrudes, and by the deep sea a music in its roar.

Made from diverted wood waste, wild foraged ochres, crushed rosebuds, plaster, pva size, acrylic, indigo, dry synthetic pigments, oil, oilstick, gamvar on stretched canvas.

I built this series using ochres that I hand-foraged in the Okanagan mountains of British Columbia—locating, digging, grinding, levigating and calcining the minerals myself. These were combined with reclaimed wood waste from Squamish nation totem pole carvers and local sculptors, predominantly tightly controlled red cedar and dalbergia. Experimentation led to the development of a new wood-based surface created using plaster, acrylics and crushed rosebuds and tinted with said ochres, indigo and synthetic pigments. Applied as loose slurries, these thick layers take several weeks to dry, and allow me to selectively scratch back to the underpaintings. Once fully cured, I sealed and treated the wood in preparation for oil paint. The resulting surface is highly textured and almost infinitely absorbent: essentially a high-relief sponge that continually sucks in paint, wicking colour outward. For months, I repeatedly painted into these surfaces, allowing the highly unique absorption, staining and diffusion properties of the material substrate to become part of the image-making process. The high proportion of red cedar also gives the surface an unusual material resilience to the accumulating acidity of oil paint. Inspired by the wild beauty of the Canadian landscape, I wanted to render its ephemeral atmosphere and shifting light through the very materials of its rocks, trees and flora. These paintings became a kind of love letter to the geology, ecology and Indigenous material traditions of my homeland.

4' x 5'
Private Collection.