Psyimism in Landscape
The Henry Jones Art Hotel is honoured to present the work of accomplished fine artist Luisa Romeo in Psyimism in Landscape. Paying homage to the vast wonders of Southern Tasmanian landscape in fearless palettes reminiscent of the Fauvist movement, Romeo captures an aliveness of time and place, her diligence unwavering as she transfers this brilliance to canvas.
This exhibition presents a collection of the artists drawings and paintings, each well resolved in their own esteem, hanging together as a narrative of her dedication and persistence to traverse and then further expand her visual transcriptions of wilderness.
An artist of an exceptional skill with over twenty years of practice, Romeo does not sit on the edge in ambivalence, she saturates the audience with her fervency and persistence to preserve. Producing images of elaborate detail that command the most laudable attention, Romeo delivers us to the landscape, we have no choice but to succumbed to its resplendence.
Practising in the mediums of drawing, print making, and painting, Romeo’s current body of work depicts the southern Tasmanian landscape. Large scale impressionistic paintings depict a movement, an aliveness of time and place while the graphically dense details of the eddies in the tannin rich waters provide a point of focus allowing the viewer’s eye to fall into the swirl and be carried into the image. The directional painted strokes guide the viewer’s eye through the space. The tributaries and paths move within the painted picture plain to allow the audience to establish a narrative within and guide the eye throughout.
The series of circular paintings that depict the Weld, Styx and Arve rivers that flow into the major waterways in the far south are stereo views of place. The titles of the works eludes to a historical implement for viewing. The stereoscope was a device once used to view far distant lands that were difficult to access. It allowed folk to travel without leaving home. These works speak of a time when perhaps these spaces are no longer in existence.
All the preliminary drawings and photographic documentation were gathered at points where there were only a hundred metres away, at times not long past, scenes of major destruction and decimation of land through heavy-handed forestry activities. The decimation of extensive areas of ancient old growth forest surround these spaces. The roads that were traveled to reach these sublime spaces, are the very same roads and road networks that were established and are well used by boundless machinery and logging trucks that cart away our very lifeline of existence.
It seems likely these may become the last painted depictions of these places due to the continued industrialisation and urban growth into natural areas. Are these painted images destined to become amongst the last depictions of these spaces when it all is disconnected and bare? A wasteland of memories?
We have to consider the possibility these stereoscopes captured in oil and pigment will be the only way to view these landscapes in the coming decades, assuming even they survive the wanton expansionisn of the human race.
Will the stereoscopes of the future be the only way of comprehending these views that will no longer exist in 10, 20 or 30 years?
A reminder of what we could preserve from being mindful of the destruction caused by our collective narrow focus on fiscal gain prioritised over the earths bounty of natural rescources and beauty. What are we all collectivity losing from this practice of narrow focus financial gain?
