LandEscape Art Review, Special Edition

I am an artist, and I hope that I am a representative of contemporary art. When I put paint on a canvas, I am not trying to turn it into a colored figure in order to convey the material qualities of the subject. In the process of work, I think a lot about what is happening on the canvas. Also, the objects of concentration of attention are both the physiological processes of reflection at the beginning of work, and the inspiration that arises when tracking one's emotions from emerging images. In the process of work, an atmosphere of mental analysis of the very process of creating an image is created, which has nothing to do with an arbitrary overlay of color strokes, but involves a thought process based on an inner feeling. Of course, this is not always the case. Sometimes I get inspired by what I see in nature or on the streets of cities, and I convey these images to the viewer using different techniques. From time to time I get out of the process of visual "meditation" and communicate with the outside world. I organize my exhibitions and everything that a contemporary artist has to do.

Brian McPartlon is an Abstract

Expressionist based in Santa Fe, NM.He has been honing his skills with acrylics, watercolor, oils, pastels and mixed media sculpture since his first exhibition at “Best of the Stockade” in 1965 in Schenectady, NY. In 1973, he received a Bachelors of Fine Arts from the San Francisco Art Institute. By 1975 he founded and directed the 63 Bluxome Street Gallery in San Francisco.McPartlon’s technique seeks to present true depth of field through layers of shapes and colors. He uses staining, pouring, spray and a diverse set of brushes from a traditional 6” house painting brush to palm fronds, cactus, and animal bone fragments to his fingers. The range of colors and depth of each of McPartlon’s work evokes powerful reactions from anyone who has entered one of his studios in San Francisco or his current studio in Santa Fe.The large bold canvases can be ominous, antagonizing, invigorating and breath taking. A single painting may take him ten minutes or over 40 years to complete. Observers of his works will struggle to not touch the textures or crawl into the portals that exist in the layers of his paintings.McPartlon’s works have been on exhibit in New York, San Francisco, and Santa Fe, NM.

I am a Londoner, having lived here all my life and where I also studied Sculpture, completing my degree at UAL in 2016, with work interested in ideas related to the home. I worked across a variety of media on this course but since then I have been concentrating on paintings. I have always been interested in the use of Chance in art over the last century or so and I use various methods of painting and drawing to create chaotic effects on the canvases which I then try to reason with, bringing it together with more detailed work. After completing the series of bridges along the River Thames, up to the edge of London, I have been making paintings of cliffs and beaches along the West coast of England. This is meant to symbolise how both myself and the `Western’ world is constantly being unpredictability affected by the forces around it, as can be also seen in the nature of the landscape changing with coastal erosion, tides, winds, etc. The effect of climate change is only going to heighten the impact on people’s lives.

I love the leaves of the trees Nature and the leaves and the trunks of the trees and the tree of this glorious word have alwayss been a symbol of life, greenery and health for me. I like to keep the leaves with the same color and shape and Immortalize them in my memories.

The existence of so much variety In the color and shape of the leaves is unique and amazing and I love this wonder.

Spring, summer, autumn, and winter, the forms of nature, the freshness, the greenness of the leaves, and this rejuvenation, yellowing, falling, and a new beginning…

For me, It is an association of life and death, and the distance between the two that must be lived very well. Leaves is an experiencee from my recent collection that I have dealt with most In the Covid_19 period. This collection started many years ago and continues to this day, and Its charm never ends.

Iran

Nature is always attractive and very inspiring to me, and for this reason, many of my paintings and drawings feature different views of nature. For example, my previous works have included such landscapes: vast meadows, green hills, a forest in the distance, some green trees on the horizon, single trees or a bush of grass in a cold and gray atmosphere, and other such landscapes, all of which are minimalistic in terms of form and color.

In continuation of the same naturalist and minimalist approach, the collection of my recent works that you can see here, have reached the maximum extent of brevity in terms of form and color. So that the forms, which are inspired by leaves, stems and grass in nature, are very geometric and abstract, and the color is limited to black and white only, because my goal in creating these works is to show simplicity, purity and visual harmony that relationships and interactions between the components of the work evoke a musical feeling.

Québec

Whatever I wish to express, atmosphere is a constant in the conception of my works. I enjoy creating dramatic ambiences in which imaginary places and the real world merge, giving rise to different possibilities. In them, I highlight, through their eye-catching aesthetic, certain urban details lost in these vast spaces. Out of them arises a mixture of immobility, mystery and silence in which humanity proceeds towards its elsewhere . . . It is in contemplating my surroundings that I find inspiration. Through the happenstance of strolling about, my eye catches forms, lines, saturated colours and the vibrations around me, recording them in me. When I am in front of the canvas these elements rear up again, revealing themselves and in this way forming the basis of my own aesthetic. To this is added the influence of the current state of the world, on which the editorial thread of my work draws. Through this artistic language, I communicate my perception of the world today.

Oleh Lavrii Iran

Poland

Adrian Flaherty

Brian McPartlon USA

United Kingdom

Ali Khorshidpour

Mitra Tashakori

Cécile Filipe

Naima Karim

Jorge Rojas

Marie Rioux

Tanya Momi India / USA

As a child, Tanya knew she wanted to be an artist. She formally trained and earned a Fine Arts Bachelors degree in Chandigarh, India. After graduation she moved to California and made it her permanent home.

Her work falls into several categories:

Realism, Cubism, Abstract, Sikhism and Social Realism. Recently Tanya has focussed her efforts into an abstract spiritual series. She experiments with new forms and ways to express inner beauty and strength.

Tanya’s paintings reveal to the greater extent the sufferings of the people around the world in different ways. Her latest painting depicts the 1947 India’s partition and the suffering involved with the displacement of people.

Tanya has shown her paintings internationally: Toronto, London, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Copenhagen and Singapore. She has exhibited her work in over 45 solo and over 30 group shows. The painting, Whisper, is presently displayed at the Triton Museum of Art.

Tanya’s work continues to touch, move and inspire people around the globe.

Marie Rioux

lives and works in Québec

Oleh Lavrii

lives and works in Poland

Mitra Tashakori

lives and works in Iran

Adrian Flaherty

lives and works in the United Kingdom

Ali Khorshidpour

lives and works in Iran

Brian McPartlon

lives and works in the United States

4 28

USA

Sabrina is a cultural worker based in Miami, FL. Using a transdisciplinary approach, they illustrate capitalist processes of land privatization, mass incarceration, and the use of crises (natural or otherwise) to obliterate working-class communities. Countering widespread narratives of individualism, essentialism, and what we deem as “commonsense”, they create containers that prompt disturbance, surprise, and play. Exploring elements rooted in socialist histories and global acts of resistance, Sabrina’s work moves to strengthen solidarity amongst oppressed people. Collective memory, alternative mythologies, and mysticism become tools to disrupt previously assumed truths and underscore the interconnection and ongoing becoming of all.

Jelena Minic Mrdjen

Serbia

I create a foundation on which she applies new layers of pictorial materials occasionally resembling the experiences of informel, yet complex, dynamic and frequently tumultuous processes, inspired by some inner reasons of my nature, a feeling of absolute domination of visual is born. At first sight it might seem that I give priority to a typically modernistic presentation based on the collage technique. However, if that process is present here it is understood in quite a different sense. My college is a different visual game: it is a combination (synthesis?) of practically all known disciplines of visual art. My paintings are some kind of art labyrinths, which we are conquering with the sense of great concern for our own future, for what is waiting for us in the next century – but through those same labyrinths we’re going with the sense of joy, for living in age so rich with different events and experiences that there was something for us to leave in the mud behind us!

Sabrina Diaz

lives and works in the United States

Tanya Momi

lives and works in the United States

Jelena Minic Mrdjen

lives and works in Belgrade, Serbia

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Special thanks to Miya Ando, Juerg Luedi, Urte Beyer, Beth Krensky, Rudiger Fischer, Lisa Birke, Haylee Lenkey, Martin Gantman, Ariane Littman, Max Epstein, Nicolas Vionnet, Sapir Kesem Leary, Greg Condon, Jasper Van Loon, Alexandre Dang, Christian Gastaldi, Larry Cwik, Michael Nelson, Dana Taylor, Michael Sweeney, Colette Hosmer, Melissa Moffat, Marinda Scaramanga and Artemis Herber.

Joe O’Brien

Sabrina Diaz

LandEscape meets

Marie Rioux

Whatever I wish to express, atmosphere is a constant in the conception of my works. I enjoy creating dramatic ambiences in which imaginary places and the real world merge, giving rise to different possibilities. In them, I highlight, through their eye-catching aesthetic, certain urban details lost in these vast spaces. Out of them arises a mixture of immobility, mystery and silence in which humanity proceeds towards its elsewhere . . .

It is in contemplating my surroundings that I find inspiration. Through the happenstance of strolling about, my eye catches forms, lines, saturated colours and the vibrations around me, recording them in me. When I am in front of the canvas these elements rear up again, revealing themselves and in this way forming the basis of my own aesthetic. To this is added the influence of the current state of the world, on which the editorial thread of my work draws. Through this artistic language, I communicate my perception of the world today.

I express my emotions through the composition and, as a result, initiate a dialogue with the other. In my pictorial world there is no boundary between figuration and abstraction. They penetrate one another. My visual language is primarily and profoundly instinctive, intuitive and non-conformist. The essential thing is that my paintings project duality, that they be enigmatic and open to various readings.

In the studio, listening to music which creates a protective bubble around me, I choose the format and colours I wish to work with. Oil, acrylic, sometimes pastel and pencil . . . I use monochrome shades to produce a dramatic effect and to accentuate my serious purpose, even as I enjoy and have an aptitude for mixing colours. I do not follow artistic trends of the day and do not work to meet viewers' expectations. It is up to them to find their own resonance, their own meaning and pleasure. Above all, my ideas respond to an inner need, independent of fashions.

The artwork, like all that is vital, must be able to evolve.

@marieriouxartiste

Hello Marie and welcome back to LandEscape. We already got the chance to introduce our readers to your artworks in a previous edition

and we are now particularly pleased to discover the development of your artistic production. The new body of works that we have selected for this special edition of LandEscape is has impressed us for the way it connects the sense of place that you capture from real surroundings, with the realm of imagination,

An interview by Josh Ryder, curator and Melissa C. Hilborn, curator landescape@europe.com

Monténégro, oil on canvas, 102cm x76 cm, 2022

walking the viewers to explore the point of convergence between figuration and abstraction. More specifically, we would like start this interview with Pendant ce temps, an extremely stimulating work that our readers have already started to get to know in the introductory pages of this article. Would you tell us something of the genesis of this captivating painting? In particular, how did you select such intense nuance of red in order to achieve such unique sensation of contrast with the background?

Marie Rioux: Thanks to the LandEscape team for inviting me back to your magnificent journal. Your very considered questions have made me engage in true introspection . . . and at times I got a little lost in the process! (smiles)

In response to your kind comments introducing the first question of the interview, I will begin here by pointing out an important aspect of my artistic project.

In the course of my diverse rambles I observe attentively and record within myself images of striking places. Back in my studio I let my brushes go, following diverse avenues of my imagination. I place no initial constraint or restriction. Only at the very end do I finalise my composition and certain details in order to polish the work on the aesthetic level and especially to give it meaning.

The work “Pendant ce temps” (“Meanwhile”) refers to the society and environment of my land. The painting is a contemplative and reflective look at Quebec’s vast landscapes. It shows the countryside on a September afternoon. In this work I chose to bring together a church steeple and elements in red, symbolising the many traffic signs cluttering our roads. I love bringing out the unexpected,

the unusual, from which there arises an enigmatic little story. These church steeples dot the landscape all across Quebec, soaring up to the heavens and the gleaming light of the day’s end, vestiges of an era in which the Church dominated our land and our lives.

These days, endless road works have overrun these same landscapes. Hence the artificial fluorescent red pigment rising to the surface, creating a sharp contrast with the surrounding natural monochrome tones. I enjoy this aesthetic confrontation and its symbolic meaning.

The tones of your recent body of works be they intense as in L’heure bleue, and Le début, be they marked out with such thoughtful, almost meditative ambiance, as in L'Éboueur du ciel — create delicate tension and dynamics: how does your own psychological make-up determine the nuances of tones that you decide to include in your works?

Marie Rioux: My sole thoughts when beginning a work concern the tones, hues and colours. I approach the application of colours as a purely retinal aesthetic process – for the pleasure of one’s eyes – and once this is connected to the composition it becomes a visual experience. My contemplative gaze is often attracted by intense, deep colours. This is reflected in my work.

The works selected for my first appearance in your journal in 2016 focused on the river environment and its fogs, as I had to take a ferry every day to get to my studio.

Today I am exploring new options for monochrome hues, and I enjoy mixing colours which initiate different atmospheres. This is what I am most fond of doing. I then project myself into wide open spaces. These new

paths I explore give me the freedom to continue developing nuances such as those in the works you mention in your question. This, however, has nothing to do with my mood . . . I know from the moment I begin a

work exactly what kind of mood and atmosphere I wish to establish. I am and remain a dramaturge of the visual arts.

Your artworks often feature human figures,

Le début, mixte on canvas, 76cm x 152cm, 2021

that are usually present as tiny, blurred figures, that seems to be out of reach and that provides the viewers with feeling of remoteness, as in the interesting En route vers le ciel. How do you consider the role of such

human figures in your artworks? More specifically, does the fact that they're almost immersed in their surroundings, could be considered an allegorical aspect of your artworks?

Marie Rioux

Marie Rioux: These figures have an asexual form which I prefer to use in my work. I believe that they encompass all our ambivalences and that given the precariousness of life the main thing lies not in differences, but rather in emotion. These characters enable me to add tangible figurative elements in spaces which are often, but not always, abstract. They provide bearings. The appearance of these silhouettes accentuates the vastness of the land and, out of this, our own smallness and solitudes. They give rise to a psychological tension which invites contemplation of our wide world. Sometimes I feel that we circulate in our universe like ants in an immense wasteland. Looking from afar, my gaze frequently settles on similar small forms.

“En route vers le ciel” (“En Route Towards the Sky”) is a joyous work. A dreamt journey in the clouds. It recounts our re-found freedom after the isolation of the pandemic. In this sense, yes, the character in this work is a stylistic device for expressing this vastness of the world compared to the insignificance of our person, our individuality. Here there is a clear allegory. In fact these small human figures – which are, moreover, a significant element of my artistic signature – convey this allegorical world in which my thoughts and dreams have dwelt since childhood.

We have been captured with the atmosphere of Le sang des innocents. Artists from different art movement and eras — from pioneer Richard Morris, passing through Thomas Light and Andy Goldsworthy, to more recently Kelly Richardson— use to communicate more or less explicit messages in their artworks: do you think that artists can raise awareness to an evergrowing audience on topical issues that affect our everchanging society? In particular, as an how do you consider the role of artists in our globalised and unstable society?

Marie Rioux

Avant 20 heure, oil on canvas, 91 cm x 102cm, 2021

Le bloc, oil on canvas, 106cmx 137cm, 2022

Marie Rioux: Some artworks are activist. My own work, without being in the service of a cause, sometimes is. Artists are sensitive witnesses to their times. With their creativity, they have the opportunity to grasp the social issues of today’s world from unusual, striking, unexpected and sometimes even dissonant angles. Their art enables them to bring out their personal thoughts in various ways.

The social engagement of a work of art exists in its relationship with a particular context, as well as in the artist’s intent. It is thus connected to a precise moment in time. If taken out of this temporality, all that remains of an artwork would be aesthetics and memory.

Through their work committed artists share their convictions and their interpretation of the meaning of people’s lives and of events. But artists can choose whether or not to take up this role in the face of our shifting and turbulent world.

As our age is one of great upheavals of every kind, our contemporaries are becoming increasingly aware that humanity is headed straight towards unrelenting destinies. As a picture is worth a thousand words, the impact of works of visual art which strike the imagination and hit a nerve in the audience can significantly raise the awareness of people receptive to these issues.

The painting “Le sang des innocents” (“The Blood of Innocents”) refers to the discovery of a clandestine cemetery on the grounds of a Catholic residential school for Indigenous children in western Canada. It is an editorial work on the atrocities committed in the cultural genocide of First Nations peoples ordered by the government of Canada and carried out by the Church.

Marie Rioux scape

Land

For my part, I try to move myself and reach the observer while at the same time conveying my perceptions of life and, at times, the issues of the day. In this case, such a terrible tragedy. I made this work the day after the discovery. I was completely appalled by this tragedy. Everything fell quickly into place: colours, church steeple, the half-outlined figure and the blood-red texture, alluding to the traces left behind at a crime.

We really appreciate the way you achieve to create such unique combination between dramatic — almost surrealistic atmospheres and references to realistic elements. As you have remarked in your artist's statement, it is in contemplating your surroundings that you find inspiration: do you think that such dreamlike ambiance that marks out your landscapes belongs to the real images that inspire you, or is it in your opinion

L’Éboueur, oil on canvas, 76 cmx 91cm, 2021

the result of your inner state, that is reflected by the work of art as a whole?

Marie Rioux: These atmospheres are the result of ceaseless observation on my rambles through nature, although they are in no way reproductions of precise places. I am an ambler, and am constantly possessed by what I see.

During these sorties in nature – or even in the city – I am taken by the great beauty of sites,

landscapes and buildings, or by eye-catching elements and by everything that these places can appeal to visually. This ensemble is arranged before my eyes like a stage play. In short, I am often struck with wonder at a crossroads . . .

Before the blank canvas, the hues and ambiences observed earlier come spontaneously to mind. I do not seek to reproduce the reality I experienced but rather

Marie Rioux

Pendant ce temps, oil on canvas, 91cm x 102 cm, 2021

the unconscious impressions left in me by this reality. To this is added the influence, deep down, of urban structures or newsworthy events which are omnipresent in my daily life. And so I give room to my imagination. In my brushstrokes everything merges, returns and

appears in a story full of imagery. I thus initiate a depiction of the land with my own aesthetic in order to make possible a new reading of and perspective on the landscape. To answer your question, I presume that this must be, in fact, something of a reflection of my soul.

Avant la nuit, oil on canvas, 76 cm x 152cm, 2020

We dare say that the aesthetics that you develop could be considered a response to direct experience condensed in memories, mediated by the lens of emotions and of the unconscious sphere: do you agree with this intepretation? In particular, how you consider

the role of memory within creative process?

More specifically, did you ever paint en plein air, in order to capture specific ephemeral details of what is caught by your eyes?

Marie Rioux: I believe there is a deep

Land Marie Rioux

aesthetics are connected to visual experiences when I am out and about, to encounters or to other experiences, and that they are channelled by the emotions I feel at the time or by the unconscious, is certainly the case up Land Special Edition

Variation no3, oil on canvas,91cmx91cm, 2022

L’heure bleue, oil on canvas, 137 cm x 106 cm, 2021

Bosnie, oil on canvas, 91cm x 76 cm, 2022

to a certain point. And yet right from the first moments of the creative process this is mostly a conscious search for the aesthetic through hues

and forms: establishing a particular atmosphere that commands my attention. Towards the end of the process is where the

Toi et moi, oil on canvas, 61 cm x 61 cm, 2021

more figurative aspects of the work clearly come into play, and as a result this is when ideas distinctly come to me in connection with already perceived memories or emotions.

As for the role of memory in the creative process, in my case it is a central tool. All creators turn inward in order to draw on

energies and the creative impulse, and in so doing steep themselves, in part, in their memories. An anecdote: when I was a child, one day I was riding my bike late one stormy day. The sky was black, purple, rent with lightning and with deafening thunder, and in a striking contrast the grass on this early

L’atelier du Vieux port, oil on canvas, 122 cm x 106 cm, 2022

summer’s day was so green, almost fluorescent. I was excited, it was mad fun. The savage beauty of the spectacular, menacing ambience around me had a profound effect and revealed to me the extent to which I was captivated by similar natural spectacles. Splendours such as these are certainly the bedrock of my artistic personality.

I take no pleasure in reproducing nature exactly. I tried plein air painting in the past but did not find it satisfying. I don’t really like reproducing anything at all. My work does not contain the kind of specific details you allude to in your question.

I prefer to work in my studio, giving free rein to my yen. There I transform reality by bringing a degree of the dreamlike into my work: figurative, abstract, surrealist, I like to break down barriers.

How do you consider the relationship between visual arts and music? In particular, how does the music that you listen to when creating influence your process?

Marie Rioux: Both of these art forms create in the listener or the observer a sense of well being or other emotions, but by different means. What music and the visual arts have in common is to create enveloping and complementary worlds which affect our senses. In addition, each of them enriches the other. In the studio, having music in the background lets me concentrate better. It creates an enveloping protective bubble. Without music, I have too many ideas which go in every direction and make me lose a lot of time. With music, it’s like I am working in another world...

My choice of music creates an ambience in keeping with my tastes at the moment. The music selected probably influences me, but I

don’t know to what extent. I presume, however, that some of my favourite music stimulates me to use strong, powerful, deep and even sombre colours. Do other kinds of music also have an effect on the light introduced into my work?

I think that music – or sounds – most likely can become an intrinsic or complementary element in certain kinds of pictorial or spatial art.

We really appreciate your ability to create such harmonic balance between figuration and abstraction, that invites the viewers to elaborate their own meaning and pleasure. Moreover, your paintings often features titles able to offer guidance to your spectatorship: how do you go about naming your work ? In particular, is important for you to tell something that might walk the viewers through their own visual experience?

Marie Rioux: Your questions are all so kind! Thank you again for your kind words.

In fact I believe I have achieved a fine equilibrium between figuration and abstraction, and I ascribe this to the period in the 1990s when I did mostly abstract painting. I am quite at ease with this kind of art and I make use of it easily and spontaneously without barriers.

The painting’s title emphasises what the work suggests to me once it is finished and comes to me spontaneously. This must be the result of channelling the ideas of my initial inspiration when I started work on it.

My works are small stories with intentional messages, and with the title I suggest a way of reading it. Nevertheless, it is up to each observer to give it individual meaning and to make it bring another story to life if they wish.

It is not very important, but I find it pleasant to guide observers in the direction of the way I myself look at my work.

For a long time I thought that the visual work

spoke about itself and that it did not need a title or an explanation. I changed my way of thinking in the wake of frequent questions by observers when faced with my work. So now

Déjà le soir, oil on canvas, 61cmx 122cm, 2022

I enjoy guiding them to the meaning I give the work. Moreover, often when responding to questions I like to develop the story by inventing all kinds of things that come to mind.

I amuse myself a little bit . . . For my part, through my work I try first of all to give rise to an emotion in me. Creating, after all, is an egotistical act. In this sense I am

Marie Rioux

seeking pleasure. Then comes the action of communicating with the other person. Intution plays an important role in your approach and your visual language is primarily and profoundly instinctive: how do you consider the role of chance and improvisation playing within your artistic process?

Marie Rioux: I am naturally instinctive and experience has taught me to have confidence in myself. So when I start work on a project I basically reflect on the colours I wish to use. Improvisation comes to the fore in my first brushstrokes as I apply layers of colours to establish the ambience of the work. Improvisation thus has a fundamental role for me.

Nevertheless, it is by no means a product of chance that these hues appear on the surface. They are the reflection of what I am feeling more or less consciously at that moment. Then comes the work’s construction, its composition. In this second stage I sketch out the narrative I have in my head. Despite the spontaneity and freedom of my gestures, an enormous amount of work is involved, because I maintain a critical eye towards my work and don’t hesitate to start all over if the magic is not there.

Sometimes little blunders create felicitous opportunities: is that a matter of chance?

Thanks a lot for your time and for sharing your thoughts again, Marie. How do you see your evolution as a visual artist over time? Are there any things that you do fundamentally different from when you?

Marie Rioux: Looking back on the work I have made since I started out I see that my ideas have not changed but rather have simply evolved. After several digressions these ideas

have freed themselves from established artistic fashions and currents. They have become singular, with assurance. My interests remain the same, but I now fully stand by them! I am driven by a sense of urgency. So many new paths remain to explore. I always have the sense of just starting out!

I would like to be more disciplined in my pictorial investigations. A short while ago I decided to work in series, because this method will enable me to explore, from the same starting point, the many aesthetic possibilities of a work. I’m presently working on an exciting new series taken from my painting “Rivière Humber” (“Humber River”). The goal is to carry out experimental modifications to it by inserting various elements using fluorescent colours in order to observe their effect. I would like to explore this composition in depth without being distracted by my other interests.

Nevertheless, because I now live in Montreal, I have the idea of possibly creating a series of small works depicting the heads of unusual individuals such as those you come across regularly on the bus or the subway. This is how I am: always intensely influenced by my experiences in my surroundings.

From November 26 to January 6 a solo show of my work, entitled “Voies de traverse” (“Cross Roads”) is being held at the Angers gallery in Montreal, and I still have works at the splendid Abbozzo gallery in Toronto and the Jack Meier gallery in Houston. I work a lot and the days in my studio pass too quickly.

In addition, I am thinking seriously about the impact of my medium, oil paint, on the environment. I thus have a project of returning to video art. In fact a second version of “Marche en terrain inconnu” (“Walking on Unknown Land”). The initial work, dating from

2018, was an experimental work made during a research and creation course at UQAR (the Université du Québec à Rimouski). It was well received, judging from the commentary on it I received.

So there you have it. Thank you very much for your attention to my work: it’s encouraging, and I greatly appreciate being one of the artists in whom you are interested.

Marie Rioux

Rivière Humber no 2, oil on canvas 91 cm x 91 cm, 2022

LandEscape meets

Oleh Lavrii

I am an artist, and I hope that I am a representative of contemporary art. When I put paint on a canvas, I am not trying to turn it into a colored figure in order to convey the material qualities of the subject. In the process of work, I think a lot about what is happening on the canvas. Also, the objects of concentration of attention are both the physiological processes of reflection at the beginning of work, and the inspiration that arises when tracking one's emotions from emerging images.

In the process of work, an atmosphere of mental analysis of the very process of creating an image is created, which has nothing to do with an arbitrary overlay of color strokes, but involves a thought process based on an inner feeling.

Of course, this is not always the case. Sometimes I get inspired by what I see in nature or on the streets of cities, and I convey these images to the viewer using different techniques. From time to time I get out of the process of visual "meditation" and communicate with the outside world. I organize my exhibitions and everything that a contemporary artist has to do. I would be very happy if I have new contacts with people who love art, as well as with gallery owners and curators.

@olehlavrii

An interview by Josh Ryder, curator and Melissa

C. Hilborn, curator landescape@europe.com

Hello Oleh and welcome to LandEscape. Before starting to elaborate about your artistic production and we would like to invite our readers to visit https://lavri.netgallery.eu in order to get a wide idea about your artistic production, and we would start this interview

with a couple of questions about your background. You have a solid formal training and you studied at Crimean Art School. N. S. Samokish: how do these formative experiences influence your evolution as an artist? Moreover, how does your cultural substratum address the direction of your current artistic research?

Oleh Lavrii: Experienced teachers can shape the

Northern lights, acrylic on canvas, 50x40 cm, 2022

worldview of students and influence the development of an aspiring artist for several years and even decades to come. Especially if the teacher is interested in the development of his wards and is passionate about the process of transferring experience not only in terms of drawing techniques, but also in the formation of the spiritual qualities of students.

Although there were not many such teachers in my life, I nevertheless received enough knowledge in the field of easel painting. The teachers of Crimean Art School. N. S. Samokish were able to open the way for me to the world of art and taught me how to professionally use a set of tools, for which I am very grateful to them.

Clouds over the beach, oil on canvas, 100x120 cm. 2022

As an artist, you are particularly interested in the physiological processes of reflection that guides the creation of the work of art: when walking our readers through the genesis of your works, would you tell us something about your usual setup and process? More specifically do you create your works intuitivelly, instinctively? How important are improvisation and spontaneity in your practice, in order to capture the inspiration that arises from the emerging images?

Oleh Lavrii: I think many artists are interested in the process of creating a work of art at the moment of inspiration. It is also very important for me when inspiration and perfect movements of the tool on the canvas work in tandem, when thoughts do not get ahead of the flow of smooth work, then it becomes possible to think a little about the processes taking place on the canvas and direct them in the right direction. For example, the work "Catharsis", When I started this work, I thought about the sea, about the sand on the beach, but in the process of work I thought about the sources that fill the seas and oceans, at the end the idea of \u200b\u200bCatharsis appeared. It is very exciting to follow the process of work, and experience the joy of emerging images.

The works that we have selected for this special edition of LandEscape —and that our readers have already started to get to know in the introductory pages of this article — has at once captured our attention for the way they blend reality with imagination, inviting the viewers to explore the crossroad between reality and the dreamlike dimension: how do you consider the relationship between reality and imagination, playing within your artistic production?

City lights, acrylic on canvas, 40x50 cm, 2022

Pearl, oil on canvas, 50x70 cm. 2022

Oleh Lavrii: I try not to give free rein to fantasy, as fantasy images scatter attention and can lead to passive imagination, this is not what an artist needs to work with. In my case, it is better to keep the main theme in mind and develop the idea in the process of work until the moment when I feel a surge of hormones of joy from the result. I think that at this moment inspiration gains its volume and helps to complete the work with the best result.

The tones of your works be they intense and bright as in the works from Petrichor and Yellow field, be they marked out with such thoughtful, almost meditative ambiance, as in Invasion and in Melancholy — create delicate tension and dynamics: how does your own psychological make-up determine the nuances of tones that you decide to include in your works?

Oleh Lavrii: I like to work with sky and sea colors, they blend well with black and gray. These colors bring a sense of stability, nobility and contemplation to my life. Very rarely, according to my mood, I write a work only in gray shades, for example, the work of Melancholia. And such works as Petrichor and Yellow field, I think this is the perception of everyday simple joys. Although we can live in interiors with white and gray walls, sometimes you want to go to a restaurant with a bright interior and get a boost of vivacity. When I paint pictures in yellow, I do not give in to reflection, but I try to quickly finish the work and return to the usual slow analysis of images.

You are a versatile artist and your artworks as City lights, Clouds over the beach and Catharsis — encompasses both abstract and figurative feelings. Still, each of them

Catharsis, oil on canvas, 80c80 cm. 2022

conveys such stimulating visual ambivalence, able to walk the viewers to develop personal visual interpretations and feelings. Austrian Art historian Ernst Gombrich once remarked the importance of providing a space for the

viewers to project onto, so that they can actively participate in the creation of the illusion: how important is for you to trigger the viewers' imagination in order to address them to elaborate personal interpretations? In

Summer evening, acrylic on canvas, 40x50 cm, 2022

Plaza katedr, oil on canvas, 60x80 cm. 2022

The trees are sleeping, oil on canvas, 70x70 cm, 2022

particular, how open would you like your works to be understood?

Oleh Lavrii: Yes, of course I want my work to be

understandable to the viewer. Moreover, I find topics that would be close to the viewer and affect their feelings. I give titles to my work that will help the viewer to go through

the visual image without tension. And of course viewers are entitled to their own interpretations. It's nice for me to notice and hear how viewers comment on their personal

impressions and associate with personal experience when considering my work. This is a very effective way of communication, with the help of abstract images you can

Birds in the city, oil on canvas, 70x70 cm. 2021

Oleh Lavrii

Tower construction, acrylic on canvas, 50x40 cm, 2022

Yellow field, acrylic on canvas, 120x100 cm, 2022

Lincoln island, 70x70 cm, oil on canvas, 2022

convey impressions and even specific ideas.

We have really appreciated the multifaceted nature of your artistic research and before

leaving this stimulating conversation we would like to thank you for chatting with us and for sharing your thoughts, Oleh. What projects are you currently working on, and

what are some of the ideas that you hope to explore in the future?

Oleh Lavrii: I am currently working on a new collection of works called "Eloquent People". https://lavri.netgallery.eu/?new-collection In these paintings, I depict ordinary people in everyday life. It is interesting for me to observe people, and I try to understand what they think about, what they value, what they strive for. People are not able to live without desires, because they have elementary physiological needs, which are primarily related to survival and reproduction. It is in us

by the Creator. In one wise book it is written; Everything that your hand can do, do it according to your strength; for in the grave where you will go there is no work, no reflection, no knowledge, no wisdom. Ecclesiastes 9:10. I, as an artist, try to fulfill my functions to the fullest. In the near future I plan to create a collection of sculptures that should show the image of a person in a transforming world.

Harbor, acrylic on canvas, 50x40 cm, 2022

Water lilies, oil on canvas, 70x50 cm, 2022

Oleh Lavrii

Thaw, acryl on canvas, 100x120 cm 2022

LandEscape meets

Mitra Tashakori

I love the leaves of the trees Nature and the leaves and the trunks of the trees and the tree of this glorious word have alwayss been a symbol of life, greenery and health for me. I like to keep the leaves with the same color and shape and Immortalize them in my memories. The existence of so much variety In the color and shape of the leaves is unique and amazing and I love this wonder. Spring, summer, autumn, and winter, the forms of nature, the freshness, the greenness of the leaves, and this rejuvenation, yellowing, falling, and a new beginning … For me, It is an association of life and death, and the distance between the two that must be lived very well. Leaves is an experiencee from my recent collection that I have dealt with most In the Covid_19 period. This collection started many years ago and continues to this day, and Its charm never ends .

@mitratashakori1

, curator landescape@europe.com

Hello Mitra and welcome to LandEscape.

Before starting to elaborate about your artistic production we would start this interview with a couple of questions about your background. Are there any experiences that did particularly influence your evolution as an artist? Moreover, how does your cultural substratum address the direction of your current artistic research?

Mitra Tashakori: Greetings to the lovely team of LandEscape

I do believe that we are surrounded by a myriad of objects that shape our artistic character on a daily basis. As for me, I well remember how the patterns and flowers in my mother’s embroidery would interest and entangle me.

Soon after I graduated from high school, I chose art and graphics as my major. So, I think all these would ultimately affect the formation of my works.

Graphics is a creative field which offers a wide space to maneuver in. It is used not only in advertisements, but also in the creative works of art. This field became a good platform for the creation of my art.

An interview by Josh Ryder, curator and Melissa C. Hilborn

The body of works that we have selected for this special edition of LandEscape —and that our readers have already started to get to know in the introductory pages of this article — has at once captured our attention for your exploration of the relationship between reality and imagination, as well as the unique choice of tones that unveils mystical qualities from real places: when walking our readers through the genesis of your works, would you tell us something about your usual setup and process?

Mitra Tashakori: If you mean the leaves collection, the work begins with the arrangement of the leaves on the page, and it immerses me so much that the work takes shape by itself without me consciously giving it a thought.

Maybe it's better to say that I put the leaves on a paper or cardboard surface, my imagination draws me to nature and it is transferred from nature to my work, and then other visual elements come to my work, I put surfaces, lines and finally dots.

Mitra Tashakori

I place the dots more carefully and obsessively and finally the work is completed.

The formation process definitely goes back to my memories, the landscapes I have seen and my mentality.

As for my other works, I just need to start the work... and the next, the work itself draws me and takes me with it and a new work is created.

When my mind is occupied with a problem, more and more lines and dots come to me,