“BLOOM”
Paintings by Bonnie Laird
Martin Batchelor Gallery
February 6 – March 3, 2016
Artist Statement
I began this series about two years ago, inspired by my love of 17th century Dutch painters and their use of dark backgrounds to emphasize and highlight the rich colours of their still lifes.
These works represent my interest in colour, light, and shadow. I’ve used undefined and semi-abstract floral subjects and skies to explore themes of vulnerability, turbulence, disintegration, uncertainty, loss, hope, beauty, strength, and rejuvenation. I have had some personal challenges over the past year and the series evolved to reflect those experiences. I wanted to use elements from the natural world without being too literal in their depiction or focusing too much on exact context. Organic subjects like flora and sky, whether studied for their crisp shapes or loosely drawn in ambiguous settings, allowed me to play with light and colour to suggest a feeling of mystery and the unknown. We tend to interpret nature through our emotions, and this series gave me a way to explore this visually.
My intent is for the viewer to feel something from my work, to draw an emotional response from my depictions of introspection, memory and dreams.
