Artists Thoughts 2010 – Susie Dureau
“The artist should paint not only what he sees before him, but also what he sees within himself ... if he sees nothing within himself, he should also forgo painting what he sees before him” Casper David Friedrich
ON THE SHIFTING MEANING OF THE LANDSCAPE
That which we bring to the landscape in terms of shifting social, cultural, philosophical and political interpretation confounds any clearly defined concept. The natural world can be understood in many ways. Simultaneously it is has shared meaning (we all inhabit the earth) and an intensely personal meaning (we each bring different associations and memories to our understanding of it). For some, the landscape is about the built environment, for some it is pastoral land, and for some it is inextricably linked to ancestors.
ON PAINTING THE LANDSCAPE; REPRESENTATION AND TRUTH
Paintings are appropriations as much as creations – taking and altering the motif is inherent in the artist’s process of seeing and interpreting. Paintings are never completely about their subject.  In translating the model to painting, one naturally manipulates the ‘reality’ to the point where it becomes as much about the physical structure of medium as the subject. In between these two things there is a world of possible associations for the viewer. The metaphorical fog rolls in. Subject matter is the architecture of the image itself.
‘It’s a complicated conceptual thing that artists have been struggling with over the course of the 20thC and modernity –His paintings are about paintings –they show a relevance to right now – a clarity in the history of image making without feeling redundant or derivative in any way – his works are steeped in art history’