Kamilla Talbot

My paintings explore painterly invention and particularity of place. I am a landscape painter who works from direct observation, from memory and from existing work. Painting intuitively constructed landscapes, I am looking for a metaphoric, poetic presence, rather than a literal representation of nature. I am developing a vocabulary of flatness and abstraction which co-exists with the depiction of a perceived, representational space.

As my relationship to place evolves, my work shifts toward abstraction. The winter landscape and the movement of water, in particular, present a simplified and mysterious bridge for me to explore this shift. Painting in Upstate New York and Scandinavia, “the North” has become a discrete element in my work.

It starts with looking at life. I stand in the landscape at my easel looking for an unusual light, structure, or form. The focus is on what I see, not on what I think I see. Invention is also part of my process. Color may be a metaphor for the actual color:  A poetic, intuitive stand-in suggested by the tone and intensity of the local color.

In the studio I sometimes work from my own paintings, imagining the transience of light and letting the painting’s progress inform its direction. Painting perceptually and with invention, I aim to create whole, uplifting statements.

_{– Kamilla Talbot}