Painting in Nature

When I first decided to move to the Pacific North West, it was because I knew I wasn’t feeling inspired where I was going to school in Baltimore, I needed nature. Growing up in the Caribbean had inscribed a forever love for being surrounded by the infinite unknown in nature, and thats where my inspiration came from. I wanted to be somewhere new that I could be amongst nature, spend time exploring and find myself in landscapes that would remind me of how small I am and how infinite life is. I applied to school, and bought my ticket before I was even accepted.

One of the first things I wanted to start doing was backpacking, and within a year I was brought on my first backpacking trip. I fell in love. Whenever the chance presented itself I had my bag packed and at one point started going alone.

It was my senior year at Portland State University and I had a thesis show to finish paintings for plus other art classes to create work in. It was hard to not spend time outside so for one of my painting classes I brought my art work with me outside and created this series based on my time spent out backpacking. I brought one brush, one color, and an un-stretched primed canvas. I would tie each corner to nearby trees, or put rocks on the corners to keep it from blowing away.

Painting with the elements and letting nature collaborate with me became an important part of this series, as often times shadows would be casted in which i’d trace, or the wind would effect my mark making. The imagery became an accumulation of different views or what I perceived surrounding me, trying to stay away from perfectly representing what I saw, but portraying feeling of place and the elements of nature as I received it.

Love,

Sophia Foster