deep listening: Landscape Mega Post

Swedish artist, Marcus Ivarsson used an old encyclopedia as inspiration for these landscapes. The archaic monuments/volcanic forms are reminiscent of the clay miniature works of Charles Simonds.

Marcus Ivarsson, Hills album art, 2011

Marcus Ivarsson, Hills album art, 2011

I have been reading Hundreds and Thousands, the journal of painter and Canadian legend, Emily Carr. In her writings, Carr gives detailed descriptions of her travels, the quality of the clouds and air, and the work of other painters in her circle, particularly that of the Group of Seven (not to be confused with the Indian Group of Seven). She described these men as having creating "a world stripped of earthiness, shorn of fretting details, purged, purified; a naked soul, pure and unashamed. . . "(Carr, Emily. Hundreds and Thousands: The Journals of an Artist. Toronto: Irwin Publishing. 1966).

A. Y. Jackson, Hills at Great Bear Lake, 1953

Frank Johnston, The Fire Marshall, 1920

Franklin Carmichael, A Northern Silver Mine, 1930

Frank Johnston, Patterned Hillside, 1918

Tom Thomson, The West Wind, 1917

Franklin Carmichael, Bisset Farm, 1933

Lawren Harris, Icebergs, Davis Strait, 1930

Lawren Harris, Afternoon Sun, Lake Superior, 1924

Lawren Harris, Algoma Hill, 1920

Lawren Harris, Mount Robson from the North-East, 1929

Lawren Harris, Mount Thule, Bylot Island, 1930

While the Group of Seven was busy celebrating the pristine natural glory of their homeland, the majority of Llyn Foulkes' art focuses on its demise and destruction. There is no doubt we are in a different era. The works pictured below do not depict Los Angeles as a burning valley of trash, but they are distinctly barren and dead.