{"id":35597,"date":"2016-09-24T11:19:15","date_gmt":"2016-09-24T15:19:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artoronto.ca\/?p=35597"},"modified":"2016-10-04T12:23:36","modified_gmt":"2016-10-04T16:23:36","slug":"jim-reid-field-of-vision-at-lonsdale-gallery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/v2.artoronto.ca\/?p=35597","title":{"rendered":"Jim Reid: Field of Vision at Lonsdale Gallery"},"content":{"rendered":"

Interview with Jim Reid (JR) by Nika Teper (NT)<\/strong><\/p>\n

Jim Reid\u2019s chaotic brush strokes enable atmospheric renderings that are especially provocative when\u00a0slowly approached from a distance. His representations aim to convey the tensions of space in time. The contentious theme of land use becomes a\u00a0conversation about conservation and development. To communicate the interaction of natural and human\u00a0histories, he employs the method of onsite work derived from late 19th\/early 20th century Plein Air painting. Peel Plain Farms, a locale northwest of Toronto, is a\u00a0historic agricultural area facing development. This series presents the transience of nature, the uncontrollability of\u00a0space; nature’s fragility and resilience, order and chaos. Up close his work appears to be energetic,\u00a0chaotic, magnetic brushstrokes that interact and exchange. From afar his work becomes cohesive representations that recede in space.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Jim Reid, Peel Plain 7-4-16: north from King Street west of Sloan Road, 2016, acrylic on canvas, 76″ x 114″<\/p>\n

NT: How does changing atmosphere and weather influence your work? Can you expand upon your process\u00a0of Plein Air painting? Are the artworks in their entirety completed in the outdoors? How does this method\u00a0influence the outcome?<\/span><\/p>\n

JR: For centuries, Western culture and science have sought to demystify and control nature. Today, no corner\u00a0of the earth is unaltered by technology, yet nature remains beyond our control, infinitely complex and\u00a0enigmatic. The fragility and resilience of nature, its order and chaos fascinate me. As a plein-air painter, I\u00a0seek a complete involvement with the site. Working outdoors on the land, I am immersed in the vagaries\u00a0of wind, rain, snow and sun. Depending on the site, I may also be buffeted by passing transport trucks or\u00a0tormented by black flies. Plein-air painters believe that these various sensations of experience can be\u00a0translated through paint. Many of my paintings are small-scale studies, which are easily transported and\u00a0depict the landscape with immediacy. I also work on a monumental scale, which presents different\u00a0challenges. Earlier work from my \u201cTerraforms\u201d series was based on fibreglass casts of the forest floor or\u00a0Canadian Shield granite. These panels could be constructed on-site and left outside for many months\u00a0during the process of work. Paintings from the \u201cForest\u201d series were painted within hiking-distance of my\u00a0studio, and plywood panels or stretched canvases were portaged to the sites and remained there during\u00a0the painting process. The \u201cPeel Plain\u201d sites are more public, on roadsides or the edges of fields, and so\u00a0must be more mobile. I may carry sectional panels tied to the roof of my car, or just unroll a large canvas\u00a0directly onto the ground.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>2016, site #1, Peel Plain<\/p>\n

NT: Your work is rooted in real landscapes. Do you aim to convey a layered composition of different\u00a0moments in time simultaneously? How long does it take to complete a piece?<\/span><\/p>\n

JR: The large paintings may take many months to complete. I often have several works in progress, and may\u00a0move them to different sites during their development. The final stages of work are completed on a single\u00a0site and day, and the works are titled by their completion date and location. The completed work is\u00a0layered with place and time, be that from dusk until darkness, or through seasons. I use watercolour or\u00a0acrylic paint, both of which are affected by temperature and humidity. Random \u201cpaint events\u201d are allowed\u00a0to occur, influenced by both the climate and the nature of the materials.<\/p>\n

NT: Your work thematically deals with the collision of nature and mankind and the result reveals many\u00a0dichotomies. What is your personal opinion about urban expansion and humans\u2019 lack of knowledge about\u00a0nature?<\/span><\/p>\n

JR: On a trip to the south of France a few years ago I was struck by the respect shown to the history of landuse.\u00a0Ancient towns were continuing to expand, but within boundaries and with architectural consistency.\u00a0The agricultural land between them remained intact, revealing topography dating back to the Middle\u00a0Ages. In North America we have held to an expansionist mentality, and we are spiritually poorer because of that.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Jim Reid, Peel Plain 3-7-16, 2016, acrylic on canvas, 72″ x 108″<\/p>\n

NT: Will your future work also deal with the consequences of urban expansion?<\/span><\/p>\n

JR: The work is part of an ongoing observation of the Peel Plain. The Peel Plain is a historic agricultural area\u00a0north-west of Toronto, defined by Brampton to the south and the Niagara Escarpment to the north. It\u2019s\u00a0farms reveal a time-layered working of the land, many going back 5 generations. Small sections of\u00a0woodland date back to the pre-colonial era, when the land was part of the Mississauga First Nation. I\u00a0have a long familiarity with the area, having frequently travelled through it since the 1960\u2019s. My present\u00a0studio is just north of the Peel Plain. From 1999 to 2002, at a time when I was working in Toronto and\u00a0making a daily commute from rural Caledon to the GO station in Brampton, I created a photographic\u00a0archive of over 2,000 images of the Peel Plain. These were panoramic photos taken from a moving car\u00a0using a low-tech camera. They documented the transition from rural to suburban land-use at a time when\u00a0the recent expansion of Brampton was just beginning. A selection from the series, titled \u201cMarginal Lands\u201d\u00a0was shown at Lonsdale Gallery, and is now in the collection of the Peel Art Gallery. The work in \u201cField of\u00a0Vision\u201d revisits many of the sites photographed in \u201cMarginal Lands\u201d. Many other sites have since been\u00a0built-over. I plan to continue painting and drawing in the Peel Plain in the years to come.<\/p>\n

*Exhibition information: August 24 – October 7, 2016,\u00a0Lonsdale Gallery, 410 Spadina Road, Toronto. Gallery hours: Wed \u2013 Sun, 11 \u2013 5 pm.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Nika Teper<\/strong><\/p>\n

Jim Reid\u2019s chaotic brush strokes enable atmospheric renderings that are especially provocative when slowly approached from a distance.<\/p>\n

Read more →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":35600,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,181,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35597","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","category-nika-teper","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/v2.artoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35597","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/v2.artoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/v2.artoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/v2.artoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/v2.artoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=35597"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/v2.artoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35597\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35904,"href":"https:\/\/v2.artoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35597\/revisions\/35904"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/v2.artoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/35600"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/v2.artoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=35597"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/v2.artoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=35597"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/v2.artoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=35597"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}