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While I frequently describe myself
as a figure painter, my relationship to the landscape that surrounds
me holds a prominent place in my image making process as well.
Throughout my career of studio painting, my interest in one or
the other has evolved to the point where my work with the figure
and the landscape has developed into an underlying, though not
always visually apparent fusion of both.
I very rarely work outside of my studio, and I work predominantly
from memory without visual reference to the subject matter. My
awareness of the inherent subjective nature of memory is embedded
in my visual recall as it merges with emotional memory and response.
The process of painting is a physical and sensuous experience
for me. The work that results from this experience may be considered
a metaphor, or an allegory for the collusion of past, present,
social, factual and fictional issues in the transfiguration of
the human figure and landscape. My work is an exploration of
the archetypal inheritance of the iconic 'human \ land'
relationship and its place in the human psyche. These associations
provide a condition for the mind and eye to wander and linger
in contemplation of our personal experience and response.
I am acutely conscious of my
own responses in the process - painting/drawing is a very physical,
gestural, emotional and sensual act. Allusions to the qualities
of humanity, and the messages contained in this physical act
become interspersed with subtle narrative and social issues,
such as the response to environmental disruption and/or social
behaviour - not so much in the subjects or ideas themselves,
as in the result.
Richard Reid, 2011