In his newest work, Kent Lovelace combines his long standing passion for landscape imagery with the metal plates familiar to him from the printmaking world. Using copper surface rather than canvas for his oils, he creates jewel-like paintings based upon his sojourns in southwest France, especially the ancient villages of the Dordogne River Valley. While these paintings bear the names of the landscapes that inspired them, they are less about specific locale than qualities of light and atmosphere. Copper, with its intrinsic luminous property, becomes a crucial element in the painters palette, allowing him to achieve brilliant highlights.

Lovelaces work lures contemporary viewers with the prospect of sanctuary. Here is Nature, not the wilderness, but a landscape that has been inhabited and cultivated for hundreds of years. A sense of refuge is conveyed through perspectives viewed from within the landscape. Compositional elements and deft tonal orchestration reinforce the notionthat human activity can take place in harmony with the natural world. Lovelace is interested in the interaction between organic forms and man made structures. Orchards and vineyards are arranged in ordered rows; farm buildings are firmly rooted or nestle into countoured hillsides.

Light and atmoshere are nearly palpable in these oils which describe such sublime viewpoints as the umbered shadows of a backlit forest or a fruit tree bathed in the misty lavendar light of morning. Silhouetted against a radiant yellow sky, the lacy branches of creekside trees create an effect reminiscent of stained glass. These paintings transport us to places remembered or imagined and they glow.

Lisa Harris
Lisa Harris Gallery
www.LisaHarrisGallery.com
Seattle, Washington