Lesley Burr solo show at the Compass Gallery 2009
Click on the images below to see some recent Work.
Fisher 2
These new paintings reflect the influences of land, life, colour and light unique to the West Coast of Scotland. The work explores the physical influences of weather, landscape and the place that we find ourselves within it. There is a culture present in the West that is hard to pin down; it shifts between relaxed, with a preoccupation to rain, to a focused determination that is independent and spirited.
Our lives and conversation often refer to the weather and after living in Argyll, I can understand why as the vast areas of water and lush temperate rainforest have a huge influence on people's lives here, from the rain that falls to the plants that grow profusely. There is an abundance of water, from the lochs, rivers and sea to the rain water from the sky. The symbolism of water is prevalent in much of my work and is used in different ways, hinting at all tones of human experience from dark to light, intense in its stillness and complex in its layering of vibrant colour.
Lighthouse, landscape 2
Most paintings start from a genuine observed experience and consequently there is a sense of integrity about these works, of having witnessed something of significance that is remembered. The unusual combination of real, imaginative and psychological worlds blend sensitively, to form a strong symbolic language both poetic and with a sense of the sacred.
Repeated landforms, such as mountain outlines are used instinctively to emphasise the mysterious quality, simplicity and even freedom that one often feels in Nature. Remote places are attractive to me and having travelled to Southwest China, India, Pakistan, Norway as well as having lived in Shetland for 10 years these experiences (whilst not free of distractions) have cemented a love of landscape and a deep fascination with people, no matter where they live as a place within the world.
Sea Plants 2
Mostly the pictures start with a response to nature, an experience outside of changing light, season, the fleeting quality of human experience that sink to a place of meaning in our understanding. Simplicity of form in composition is used to enhance the focus on the subject such as the birds, trees or, boat creating a magical, even mystical connection to a world beyond the ordinary, speaking from a place of contentment, longing, unearthly and imaginative.
My work continues to be greatly influenced by remote places and the natural world as well as the complexity of emotional inner worlds. The paintings have many layers to them - often being painted over many weeks to build a sense of depth. Exploring visual environments within the cycles of the seasons is of great fascination and the relationship people have with their surroundings, producing images as a poetic response to nature rather than the representational. Drawing on the universal themes of life and death, faith, love and solitude I use landscape to explore the rich and varied aspects of human experience.
Lesley Burr, 23 March 2009
© lesleyburr@zetnet.co.uk
website by in Stirling