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Contents Copyright © 2003-2011

HEIDI MCDOWELL

Artist Statement


Rooted in the tradition of landscape painting, my work explores our contemporary relationship to the landscape as it is shaped by digital media and car culture. Due to the quick, cheap and easy nature of digital cameras, we have the ability to collect and store large numbers of images with little incentive to edit.  They become memories filed away on the desktop to be accessed later, if ever.  Car trips through the landscape are a particularly rich source of such images, shot through the windshield or standing next to the car for a brief moment before moving on to the next thing.


This work continues my investigation of light in the landscape as seen through the lens of a camera.  I incorporate digital artifacts, dust on the sensor, reflections in the car window and other “aberrations” found in photographic source material into my paintings, to celebrate the way in which these otherwise unwanted mistakes highlight the colors and textures of the natural world.  In fact, they cause me to look again at moments in the landscape that might otherwise be forgotten.


Arrested motion and surprising color in the photo reference allow me to be highly specific about light conditions in the paintings.  Rendered realistically, they provide a familiar frame of reference from which to view unfamiliar things.  My aim, however, is not solely to reproduce a photograph.  Oil painting has its own “artifacts” and unpredictable process related effects which bring more life to the image.  Rough painterly marks are often enough to indicate detail, and each medium mixed with the paint adds its own unique texture to the painting’s surface.  Combined, the digital and painterly effects clarify and enhance the experience of seeing, allowing us to slow down and take a longer look.

HEIDI MCDOWELL’s
BLOGhttp://heidimcdowell.blogspot.com/

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WEBSITEhttp://www.heidimatic.com/
ARTIST WORKSheidi-1.html
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INTRODUCTIONS 2010
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PRESS RELEASE../exhibitions/1007-mcdowell-p.html
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