Cameron Creek by Andrew Kiss

It gives me a lot of pleasure, as a landscape painter to write a critique of Andrew Kiss's, 'Cameron Creek'.

Andrew follows the traditional format of leading the viewer along the watery pathway into the heart of his work. And, for those familiar with the process of painting, the visual pathway ends in the traditional 'sweet spot area' of his work of the cross hairs of the upper right quadrant. I like the way Andrew arranges the rocks in the bottom of the creek bed in an arrow like pattern pointing towards the upper creek. And, for good measure Andrew paints a long darker area which directionally lances towards the the last falls. All of these are hallmarks of a technically accomplished artist.

What really catches my eye is the precision, and intricacy of this work. No detail goes untouched in this beautiful work; be it small stones, hair like tree roots, ripples of water, and even rocks from the creek bed.

I am drawn to Andrew's skillful treatment of light. The gentle ripples of reflective light in the stream leads us up to the place where the stream becomes a white path among the rocks. It also interplays with the skillfully blended blues and violets in the rocks along way. Then, when you pick up the same muted tones in the mountains you find a work where sky mountains, rocks and water literally vibrate with light. And together, these adjunts make up 4/5th of his painting. But it doesn't stop there. The foliage for the most part is painting in the springtime lemon yellow-green tones. Notice the how the light bounces off the foreground shrubs. Exciting stuff!

I mentioned how I liked Andrew's colouring of his rocks. Notice how this colour flows into the flow of water in the lower part of the stream. Beautiful colouring.

I have to tell you. I am most impressed by this painting. Its the signature work of one of Canada's premier landscape artists.