Mary Romer Greenfield
Memory and communication have been an abiding concern in my artistic practice. The starting point for any image making is usually a sensory experience, though I draw inspiration from many sources, by re-reading letters from the past, photographic imagery, a day long walk along the coast, where the light falling on the land has a powerful effect on my mind
Having led a nomadic life as a child, in the Middle East and Africa I have a large bank of memories from which to draw. A vast sundrenched landscape to mysterious alleyways, together with a strong sense of loss experienced when one episode comes to an end and another begins.
In my latest series of works, Memory Cloud, I pose questions about the workings of human memory. The ever-shifting patterns of cloud in formation and dissolution are taken as a metaphor for the way in which memories advance, recede and subtly metamorphose. However vivid a scene may seem in the mind of the person recalling it, recollections are rarely fixed like a photograph coming out of the dark room.
To capture something of the evanescence and elusiveness of clouds, I have used semi-transparent glazes on canvas, combined for dramatic effect with oil colour applied with a palette knife. The intense yet subtle tones of the storm clouds were created using 18th century methods of mixing a warm or a cool black
I have read widely on the subject of Clouds, including
Hubert Damisch - Theory of Cloud and Luke Howard - The Modifications of Cloud, as well as examining the depiction of clouds by other artists such as Titian, Constable as well as landscape paintings by Dali and Caspar David Friedrich.
In my work I express the visceral tensions and clashes in the human condition as we experience it now, with the challenging flux of survival within an increasingly urbanised world. My work attempts to portray the balancing act we perform everyday of engaging with the fast pace of life and carving out enough time to stop and reflect.
2018
