26 June 2012

Landslides in Art part 13: Janice Wright

Posted by Dave Petley

It is a long time since I last posted to my occasional series on Landslides in Art.  In this edition I have decided to feature three pieces by the Canadian landscape artist Janice Wright, who has produced the following three abstract pieces that depict landslides.  Janice has a blog that explains some of her work.

The three pieces (all sadly  but unsurprisingly sold) are described by the artist (referring to the first painting) as follows:

“This is one in a series of three paintings completed on hot press watercolour paper using a palette knife. Although I generally like to use reference photos when painting, this series I created without my usual ‘road map’.”

I like them in particular because of the sense of movement that they project.  The colours suggest a cold landscape, so in my mind’s eye they are reminiscent of the recent Siachen ice / rock avalanche in Pakistan:

http://www.janicewrightart.com/large-single-view/Abstraction/1615051-7-23006/Painting/Acrylic/Abstract.html#.T-lnQ5GxlEN

Landslide 1

http://www.janicewrightart.com/large-single-view/Abstraction/1615371-8-23006/Painting/Acrylic/Abstract.html#.T-lnYZGxlEM

Landslide 2

http://www.janicewrightart.com/large-single-view/Abstraction/1615501-9-23006/Painting/Acrylic/Abstract.html#.T-lnkZGxlEM

Landslide 3

The artist has many other paintings that depict landscapes in a range of styles.  Some can be interpreted as depicting incipient rockslope failures.