Greg Thielker

I paint as a way of examining the intersection between visual sensation and psychological perceptions of nature. The act of painting from observation forces me to slow down and break the habit of unconscious seeing. When I arrive on site to do an oil painting or watercolor, I pay attention to shape, light, and color. By trying to embrace the visual information before me, I also become aware of my predispositions in viewing nature.

Culture shapes our perception of nature through movies, commercials, magazine ads, travel books, and even traditions in landscape painting. This information affects the way that we search out and experience nature in designed environments like parks and vacation sites. In my work, I recognize how nostalgia shapes my views of nature, even as I try to return to a purer notion of seeing.

In response, I attempt to exalt parts of my environment that are normally overlooked and embrace the act of seeing. Painting enables me to tap into something deeply stirring and dramatic in unnoticed parts of our environment. I attempt to make these views of roadways, construction sites, or forest trails monumental by activating the scene with weather, scale, and brushmark. When I paint, I look for a kind of meditation, or dialogue between the view and the experience.

My work centers upon this contradiction; to see and discover nature in an unmediated fashion and yet to express the meaning of the land from a psychological perspective. This shifting way of seeing, affected by memory, skill, and exposure, forms a parallel with the quickly changing natural environment. Painting builds a bridge between these dual processes not only in landscape, but also in my visual perceptions.

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