A dialogue with the environment

Adam Crowley makes paintings in the landscape and still life genre. His work explores concepts of beauty, fear, sadness, hope, frustration, deep-time, and tradition. Originally beginning his photo based work with the idea of removal of the self and monastic transcription of imagery, he has recently come to realize the necessity of beauty and the importance of dialogue between artist and environment.

Clouds pass through the sky. Countless lives begin, and countless end. Light from the sun passes through a leaf outside a window in early summer. Mountains grow and fall. Space hums.

Cloud, Oil on canvas, 30 x 40

Clouds, Oil on Canvas, 38 x 48

Painting from photographs allows one to study in depth a moment in a specific place in time. Taking weeks to analyze and render this fleeting moment, one in effect extends that moment both historically and culturally. Conversely, painting from observation things that have been dug up from the ground or found in the environment allows one to paint a specific part of history; the piece of stone that has taken millions of years to form, or the branch of a tree that has been growing, unnoticed, for decades. I then manipulate these objects to actively play a part in their specific timelines and to hint at other timelines that have been previously overlooked.

Blue Weeds, Oil on canvas 36 x 36

 

Red Weeds, Oil on canvas 36 x 36

The field of grey that surrounds the pictorial facet of the paintings retain an elemental aspect to the work. It also roots the canvas itself in reality, a definite object on a wall, a place marker in time. By offsetting the imagistic area of the canvas towards one corner of the picture plane, the image can be seen as less than important, or at least not put in a position of immediate importance.

Blossoms Next to a Garage, Oil on Canvas 17 x 14

A Weed in Oklahoma, Oil on Canvas, 18 x 24

It all comes down to knowing a thing better. An image, a moment in time, the objects in a still life. It’s about studying these things day after day to sort of squeeze their knowledge from them. To extract their philosophy. And as each series grows, the interaction between the paintings in each series as well as between the series will be the brickwork of the overall goal. That goal is to mine what observance is and how malleable meaning can be when imposed on a work of art or an image.

At the same time, transcribing the natural world onto a substrate gives meaning to the inherently indifferent. To impose meaning, to give parameters to the limitless is absurd. To attempt to put it in an understandable frame is intrinsically a human drive, one that is apart from nature. The old frames are broken, and they were artificial anyhow. To frame the trajectory of time is impossible.

Fake Flowers in a Museum Hallway, Oil on Canvas 24 x 24

 

Green Construction Fence, Oil on Canvas, 18 x 24

 

The Weeds Along the Back Fence, Oil on Canvas, 24 x 30

 

Weeds Under the Fruit Tree, Oil on Canvas, 18 x 14

 

Dandelion Next to a French Castle, Oil on Canvas, 40 x 40

 

A Rock, Dug up from the Garden; Cleaned., Oil on Canvas, 20 x 20

 

Honeysuckle Along the Fence, Oil on Canvas, 40 x 40

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https://sites.google.com/site/adamcrowleyportfolio/home

All images copyright and courtesy of Adam Crowley

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