VIEW THE ARTIST'S WORK ON HIS WEBSITE

www.ian-semple.com

The artist is a retired, broadly traveled geologist and briefly, forester, who now paints full time. Although interested in a wide diversity of subject matter and mediums, his concentration is principally in the depiction of landscapes that reflect his personal experiences and the close emotional ties that have bonded him with the earth’s environments, be they land, sea or the atmosphere. His abstract work reflects the same parameters.

The artist is an Active member of the Federation of Canadian Artists where his work has been displayed in a number of juried exhibitions. His paintings can be found in private and corporate collections in North America and Europe.

INTRODUCTION TO “geoterre”

“Geo” is a root word from the Greek that means “earth” or “of the earth” as does its French equivalent “terre.” As such the two words combined and coined as one by the artist reflect the “landscape” origins of his work, be they classic landscapes, figurative art or abstractions. It is the artist’s belief that there is little in the natural or artistic world that does qualify to be considered as landscape. While conventionally, the latter is normally deemed to be that art which depicts the form and geometry of the land comprising the physical world, life forms are also landscapes derived from evolution, each being unique in form, colour and texture. Those terms also describe that which comprises abstract art. In essence, the canvas, board or paper are starting planes on which are built the landscapes that form our artistic depictions of the natural and abstract worlds. The totality of these realms become landscapes or in this artist’s case, his “geoterre.”

The Working Wilderness Heritage series of paintings depict in particular the work of geologists and foresters within the wilderness environment, and personalizes the actual experience of the artist.

ARTIST’S STATEMENT

As a geologist and sometime forester whose work over more than forty-five years has taken him to many diverse settings around the world, my intense interest and love of the natural universe and the people who inhabit it have formed the cornerstone of my life. I largely paint landscapes but not with the intention to reproduce them, for I believe that no painter can ever adequately replicate or out-compose nature, nor reflect its emotions and power no matter how realistic might be the style of painting. Rather, since I have specifically experienced the settings of all my landscape paintings and their abstractions, I paint to relive the personal memory and emotions of each such experience as they are expressed by composition, colour and contrast, the three “C’s” that govern my work.

IMAGES OF THE ARTIST'S WORK CAN BE VIEWED ON HIS WEBSITE: www.ian-semple.com

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