Tania Rutland

Profile/CV

My work is concerned with the push and pull between representation and abstraction found in a particular type of landscape. The selective elements and the appropriation of these within the landscape are what define my paintings in such a way.

It is an abstracted view of nature, in a humanized countryside that I want to capture, a sense of looking at something close up and yet far away.

Pattern and repetition has always held a major preoccupation for me in my art. That said I realize a ‘grid’ or repetitious marks can emphasise the ‘anti – natural’ and so is somewhat of a paradox within ‘landscape’ painting. However, it is precisely this what I find fascinating and wanting to explore further.

The imagery is a mixture of memory/ remembrance, drawn or photographed features, to a source material of something more tangible and real, e.g. pattern or marks left behind from a deliberate application on to the surface of the paint. To thus possibly resemble veils or faded banners. If not so deliberate, it could suggest a hint of something by impressions appearing by uncovering or a sense of it being worn away to reveal something forgotten.

It is the incidental or even accidental element within a scene I am drawn to, like a strange, discarded, unrecognisable object left in a corner of a meadow or an unexpected defect in an otherwise perfectly ploughed field. An analogy with this could be finding beauty from threadbare fabric, stained cloth, abraded surface or weather worn, all of which have its own distinct history or yarn to tell. I am trying to show the landscape in a flux of change.

I work on several paintings at one time, allowing me to transport specific ideas and techniques from painting to the next. Thus over a period of time there is a natural evolution and cohesion within the work.

Website www.abstractlandscapes.net