Robert Genn: Langara Light.

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Robert Genn: Langara Light
Acrylics. 14x18.

I love this work by Robert Genn.

There are so many things that appeal to me. The perspective of standing below this great pine tree and looking up, makes me feel small against the force of nature.

Robert lays his acrylic paint on with big, heavy, loose brush strokes. Its so full of atmosphere and mood that it had to have been painted on location.

There's a strong sense of impressionism to it. Langara Light isn't about photo replication.

The colour values bounce back and forth as you work your way down the backgound: grey to blue to white to light blue and the white turns back to grey which flows on to the bottom of the painting. Brr. This is cold stuff.

The focal centre is the island and the dominating pine tree. I like how it reaches up and up and busts through the top of his picture.

There's a clunkyness and a solidness and a heavy fistedness about it all.
His acrlyics are smeared on as heavily as oils and this style captures the brutal strength of the environment.

There's also a spirit of artistic, iconoclasm at work here. I mean, who would even think of painting rocks pink. Aren't pinks reserved for florals? But here's the stuff - this sense of anarchy gives a spirit of liberation to his work and this emphasizes the liberated, wild, remote location he paints.

Look too at the tree trunk. It does what tree trunks do. It holds the tree together. But this trunk is bright and light reflective. The heart of the matter is brightly lit.

There is a spirit of liberation in this work. The branches of the shrubs at the base of the tree are scratched hurriedly into the work, almost as an afterthought.

The uncontrolled, disorderly, cacophany of branches and twigs and scratches make this a pretty wild looking place to be.

The cool tones give me a feeling that Robert Genn painted this one, while wearing his thick outdoor jacket and pausing only to rub his hands and pour a drink of hot tea from his thermos.