Jennifer Riddle | Embrace
Informed by the current mood surrounding our disconnection to our environment and humanity, I return my thoughts to my pastoral surroundings and reflect on the past 20 years where I’ve found peace, refuge, and healing in the sublime beauty that is characteristic to this hinterland landscape in Red Hill, Victoria.
Through loss, I’ve received an understanding of the profound effect nature has on our physical and mental wellbeing — a connection that is vitally important not just to our health but for the health of our natural world. With an emphasis on renewing our senses to natures beauty, my work aims to offer a reflective moment in the landscape — a silent pause from the noise that surrounds us, elevating one’s awareness in a soulful embrace with nature.
After many years of painting through empirical observations, I’ve developed a nuanced awareness of the subtleties that permeate this hinterland. From the atmospheric conditions and low southern light, to the seasonal grasses and lichen dappled branches, such details have shaped my work in recent years but are perhaps secondary to the underlying emotional expressions that have become my focus and intention when depicting the awe and beauty in these sentimental and familiar landscapes. Drawing upon my personal connection and the scientific insights of Peter Wolleben’s book, ‘The Hidden Life of Trees’, ‘The Nature Fix’ by Florence Williams and ‘The Secret Therapy of Trees’ by Marco Mencagli and Marco Nieri, I take an informed look at the profound phenomena found in nature and play homage to the interconnectedness that surrounds us all.
Through composition, expressive palette knife applications of varying intensities and delicate veils of brushwork, my work endeavours to exemplify both the physicality of strength and the poetry of grace that underlies the landscape. Whilst creating a soulful sense of space and depth within the work that offers an experience of stillness, reverence and connection
