Derek Oliver
Artist in Resedency
Place: Hörnateljén, BKN
Date: 25 – 31 August, 19 – 29 December 2020
I am predominantly a landscape painter, using acrylic on hardboard and hardback book covers. I am drawn to the woodlands, copses, plantations and other tree configurations of my surrounding area: Björkhagen, Nackareservatet, Ältafältet but also further afield: Värmland, Skåne, Gotland and my native Scotland also feature in my work. I am interested in our relationship with the woodland and how it has developed: as a source of fuel, a hunting ground, the many symbols, the mystery and memory, and how it continues to affect our collective subconscious. We are consistently trying to understand what the forest is. I aim to interpret the impression, the experience of landscape without trying to impose a pre-conceived order upon it.I see myself in the modern landscape tradition of Beckmann, Nolde and Kirchner and in Sweden by Åke Pallarp and Hans Viksten. My aim at the Björkö Konstnod residency is to continue to experiment with landscape painting, to develop ideas of simplification of form and palette, to seek out the beauty and mystery in the familiar yet universal landscape.
