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Greg Wood: the second exhibition of a fabulous artist

artists, Melbourne tours

18 August 2009

I am fortunate to meet many talented artists through walk-to-art. Artists introduce me to other artists and great connections/relationships evolve. There are many artists who have supported walk-to-art and have opened their doors over the years. Greg Wood is one of those fabulous artists, and he has been there from the very beginning.

Greg is about to have his second exhibition at Australian Galleries – Melbourne Smith Street, opening Thursday 27 August 2009.

When the skyline's blue burnish'd resistance
Makes deeper the dreamiest distance...

"Greg Wood creates the impression of space and movement by depicting obscurity, with his current portrayals of brooding, majestic landscapes being neither abstract or realistic. These panoramas of soft fields and blurred profiles of vegetation are charged with a poetic grandeur based on the artist's sensation of the Tasmanian wilderness, combining swirling mists, distant views and bucolic landscapes. Twilight and early morning flows through the canvas with luxuriant ease. His preference for the large scale delivers works dominated by vast heroic skies that dwarf the suggestion of foliage, enveloping the viewer within an atmosphere of lowering melancholy and mysterious subliminal imagery. Wood invites the viewer to consider the inherent drama of strange primal formations within the landscape, and in turn the dark recesses and lurking swampy structures take on a formidable course of their own.

"The existential experience of the viewer and the perceived landscape is filled with potent human experience, and defines the viewer's relationship within the spiritual universe. With its absence of detail the panoramic work becomes both a composition and a transient space, creating an evocative condensation of form and thought. This form of landscape is a perfect medium for self-reflection, with just enough ephemeral detail to trigger certain elements of identification, and tap into our memories and experiences of the forces of nature.

"Born in Naarm / Melbourne, Wood later lived in Tasmania and studied Fine Art. He is now based in Naarm / Melbourne and regularly revisits the island to reconnect with the landscape. His dry painting technique begins by applying a colour ground to enhance the overall mood – whether warmer or cooler – then he boldly applies passages of colour which are then reigned in as the dreamlike composition emerges. While the image develops, breathing through the canvas, thin layers of pigment are applied over the base colours rendering a tantalizing textured finish."

Caroline Field (July 2009)