Robert Collins

Although based on landscape, you will find no gold-leafed frames here! Not even a focus on the horizontal format with a horizon line! The emphasis is on the vertical relationships. Instead, you will discover, as I did, a more complex love for the two-dimensional design and compositions. A landscape is more than a showing of deep space. It becomes an opportunity to use the forms, light, vertical and horizontal structures that exist in nature, to create authentic designs with the utmost stability and movement... which really does exist in such evidence in real nature. In this body of work, the painting comes first, with its painterly vocabulary. Second, comes the landscape. Spirit, poetic thought and a communication to the viewer take precedence before the look and feel of the traditional landscape. The emphasis is on the vertical relationship and the compositions as they relate to the picture plane. This creates an abstracted view of a landscape, putting all emphasis on the design and sensibilities of the artist. In doing so, this allows the spirituality and vitality of the artist to surface. These two-dimensional design concerns actually allow me to express a more authentic landscape with emotion and feeling set aside from the traditional literal approach to this subject matter.