Painting Notes

My work is of course inspired in part by our beautiful Ontario landscapes. I’ve spent many days swimming, hiking, and just watching the fields go by from the car window. But the paintings are not necessarily about specific places as much as they are about the feelings of places that are familiar.

When I create a body of work I take some reference photographs, as well as sketching in the field but I also really like to do very loose, abstracted watercolour studies that have a feeling of landscape without being about a specific view. All of these things can come together equally to create my work.

A photograph or field sketch provides the initial reference for a fast, painted sketch that is put directly onto the canvas. I like to use a paint roller or a very large brush to create forms rather than drawn outlines, as this keeps my initial painting very loose and creates interesting marks. At this point I put the reference away so that I can respond to the marks that are on the canvas in a more intuitive way. The finished work can happen very fast in one or two layers or can involve many weeks of layering and drying. Each painting demands its own approach.

The thing I like best about painting landscapes is trying to capture the energy and the atmosphere of a place. We recognize a sense of space and objects in a landscape without having to fully illustrate these elements. That way we can bring our own memories and feelings to the work and not everything has been solved for us.

Artist’s Statement Courtesy of Carol Finkbeiner Thomas