Standing in the Canadian wilderness, it feels like nothing else exists. Trees surround you in every direction, the air cools the higher you climb, and the smell of dirt and decay fills the air. While hiking, you fall into a trance, trusting a path weathered by people before you to lead you to the right place. Steps keep time with the gentle hum of the forest. Eventually, the infinite body of tree trunks makes way for the sky. Standing at the highest elevation, individual trees become a cohesive colour field. The view might take your breath away—but it’s always easier to breathe in nature.
Anne Griffiths’ paintings depict the moment of experiencing nature’s sublime. The gestural strokes that dance across the canvas visualise the feeling of her surroundings in Victoria, British Columbia. The tactile paintings place the viewer firmly within the Canadian terrain, embraced by the landscape's colours, forms, and textures. Griffiths deploys abstract techniques to gently overwhelm the senses, mirroring the blissful feeling of being bathed in a forest. A Lucent Script at The Finch Project transcribes the language of nature through line and form.
Griffiths’ background in graphic design informs her strong compositional sense. From there, she lets the paintings unfold intuitively. Raw confident strokes create patterns with a minimalist palette. Shapes and colour repeat organically to subtly connote trees, water, and vanishing lines. Griffiths combines a long history of landscape painting in Canada, the always elusive attempt to capture the spanning wilderness in the North, with the raw and pigmented style of Neo-Expressionist paintings. The result is unique and contemporary.
“My intention with each painting is to use the power of colour, and with an emotive approach to the brushwork and a drawing of paint, in the hope of translating the energy and stories within the landscapes—both large and intimate,” explains Griffiths. The relationship between intimacy and boldness is seen in the technical decisions of paint application. The paintings in A Lucent Script employ soft blurring techniques that replicate the feeling of letting your eyes become comfortable enough with something to relax. Concurrently, there are areas with intensely outlined elements that demand your attention.
Anne’s work has been placed in numerous private and public collections in Canada, the UK, Europe and the US.
Image: (detail) Anne Griffith, 'A Lucent Script, courtesy of The Finch Project.