Ruth le Cheminant | Contemplating Country
Contemplating Country | 2023
120 x 100 cm
Acrylic on canvas
Tasmanian Oak shadow box frame
$2,200
BIO
Ruth le Cheminant
During the initial lockdown in 2019 my reaction was to paint my internal world and compulsively as a response to the situation. I was constricted in my activities but no one could restrict my internal world or the immediate world I lived in. I restricted the size to a 52cm x 46cm canvas and thought can I replicate the idea of expanding the physical presence of the canvas beyond a small canvas, in other words can a small work be a in essence a large painting and its energy and presence extend beyond the small size of the canvas.
After the exuberance of this series I called Covid19 Series and a major renovation within the house and the realisation this pandemic was going to last for years I reconsidered my painting. The reconsidering was a consideration that I needed to take my time, contemplate my process and be brutal in my assessment of it’s value. I put the canvases aside and gave myself time away from them to come back with a fresh eye. I challenged myself to cover/remove/obliterate areas and paintings in process that didn’t meet the standard. I let go the linkage to the landscape I’d been driven by and continued my journey of being guided by my internal world. And found in one work I intuitively returned to the landscape. I started incorporating in some paintings coloured pencils in work after being gifted 120 Faber Castell coloured pencil set. Not in all, I used it where in the painting a subtle focus was required or the eye to be directed in a low key way.
