Mural installation proposal
Niché dans les bois
(Nestled in the Woods)
Landscape artworks printed on glass for both domestic and public spaces.
Maquettes, 2021 (maquette design and creation by Gabriel Scott-Séguin and Asa Perlman)
The artworks can range from four to twenty feet and can exist serially or as individual works. The variables throughout the process allow for a flexibility that can be uniquely tailored to any space.
Created to accommodate large architectural spaces, I adapt mural designs from my landscape series. They represent my personal belief in the importance of being in nature; of seeing ourselves as part of the fabric of growth and renewal. Roots, leaves, flowing water, creatures, light, and humans are all at play together, no one factor of existence is more significant than the other, they are each interdependent within the complete picture.
My paintings are created from sketches originally painted en plein air, translated and manipulated in the studio, and then printed onto the underside of large glass panels: singly or as diptychs or triptychs. Each painting’s negative space reveals a second layer of a hand painted watercolour paper which establishes a distinctive mood and season for each piece. I use layering and cutouts of figures and animals to promote a reading of the surface that can generate renewed perspectives on each encounter. Simultaneously, the gestural brushwork of the original watercolour is emphasized by the atmospheric tint of the layer below.
The work is meant to provide an ongoing sense of engagement and renewal: the brush-stroke and the scissored edges of the paper figures are reminders of the tangible action of participating in the creative process and the specific joys of encountering nature.
detail
Materials
After extensive testing I’ve come to the conclusion that a glass surface is an ideal choice on which to print watercolour images.
From a practical sense, the non-reflective tempered glass provides a shock resistant surface which can be easily cleaned. Glass mimics qualities of watercolour as light reflects through it, translating the delicate, ephemeral quality of watercolour to the permanence of a substantial architectural feature. In order to interpret the original watercolour onto glass we have developed a flexible process for the creation of multi-panel landscapes intended for both public and domestic spaces.
Behind every glass panel is a second panel of coloured wash, hand-painted on archival watercolour paper. The paper is dry mounted onto an aluminum composite panel. These two panels are framed together with a small space between them. The small gap helps to emphasize the contrast between the digitally printed foreground and the hand painted background.
