Artist’s Statement


Painting allows me to capture impressions of places and moments. I paint landscapes because they embody the impression of a physical and real place. My paintings, however, are not landscapes; rather, they are impressions of places I have visited. Nature provides more than enough colour and texture. My job is to distill what I see, to capture the essence.

Water is particularly challenging. It changes, sometimes minute by minute and is, like my canvas, a reflection of what surrounds. I spent years observing and photographing clouds. I don’t paint them, since they are already paintings in the sky. They inspire my work but are not often the subject.

Landscapes, the water, the sky – these are macroscopic. In nature there are many orders of magnitude. I paint what I see, so the range of scale in my work is from the small fern, clinging to a rock face, bubbles in the sand - to the view over an entire continent.

I like to work in acrylic and this is making possible much larger pieces than my previous work in watercolour. The challenge is to see the entire work while it is coming together, the result is rewarding. It is more difficult to hang the larger works, as space to view them and natural lighting is much more important than with the smaller ones. I prefer to do several studies at smaller scale before attempting the larger canvasses.

I also like to work with transparent and translucent layers. Again, this comes from my watercolour days but is encouraged by the acrylic medium. A further horizon is collage. I use found objects to provide a third dimension to deliberately flat canvasses.

Travel and exceptional experiences in places well known are essential to me. I thrive on the varia in nature, both wild and man-made. Photographs, with their inherent limitations, are valuable mnemonics. I also like to collect brochures, literature cuts and printed visual materials and spend hours collating, inspecting and reviewing these materials. My main inspiration, however, is my memory.


Eva Turkewitsch, Toronto, Canada, February 2008.
eva@turkewitsch.com

'Chatsworth Ravine Series-1' 48'' x 36'' Acrylic on Canvas		'Aerial Cliffs #4' 30'' x 48'' Mixed Media Acrylic on Canvas		'Strom Approaching' 48'' x 72'' Mixed Media Acrylic