Pawleys island, SC
Phillip Harris’s provocative and luminous landscapes are most always painted as a series. “ With places that inspire me, I often spend months at that location. ” Living in the Central Hudson Valley Region of New York State and along the coast of South Carolina he continues to pull imagery from their dramatic and diverse landscapes. Other paintings are made from inspiration found during his travels and also commissioned works, which are based on a range of themes.
Working on location, most of the paintings are close views of the intricacies of surfaces and textures and light. Viewed at a distance, the paintings have a rich realism, but viewed up close one is drawn to the abstract layering, spontaneity of paint application, and the diverse and complex techniques that capture the textural “spirit “ of the landscape. Thick heavy impasto painted surfaces resonate alongside deep translucent fluid surfaces. This sets up a rich and dynamic contrast - at one point looking deep into the surface and at the next seeing the paint extend beyond the picture plane taking on a 3-dimensional sense of form. In the painting “Winter Thaw” translucent washes within the stream and water currents lay in contrast to the adjacent heavy impasto banks of snow.
Looking at the push and pull, this inward and outward play of paint, one feels the wonderful, uncontrollable and diverse textures that bring the landscape alive. What seems random and out of control technically , really has great compositional order and unity and expresses
the essence of the spirit of the landscape.
Ultimately, I think about these paintings as a sanctuary for the viewer to get lost within. Beyond the obvious subject of landscape, these are also about the poetry of the relationships that exist within the compositions.
For me the landscape - our natural world - is an extension of the Divine . 0ur connection to it, our awareness and stewardship of it, is (in my opinion) a direct link to our wellbeing and our survival, both individually and as a species.
