Annabelle Lee

My practice is rooted in observation and admiration of the lands that surround me and will survive me when my time has ended. According to Aristotle, our perception of the passing of time can be defined by the observation of change. Without change, our perception of the linear passing of time begins to fall apart. The landscapes that surround us are constantly shifting in light, colour, and atmosphere, yet they are also enduring presences that outlast us. For me, the closer a piece is to how we experience a place , or remember it in our mind’s eye: diffuse and potent, the more alive it feels.

My plein-air practices allows me to paint within that changing experience of time. Painting on location means being there for multiple hours, observing the changes of light and reflecting those changes in paint. Each painting becomes a conversation between myself, my oil paints, and the magnificent landscapes that we often pass by. I am mesmerised by the intuitive process of colour mixing and laying paint on the canvas as the landscape shifts around me. Painting from a photograph captures a single second, but painting on location allows me to paint the changes, to paint the experience of being-in-that-place.

My studio practice is more of a push and pull between drawing from the experience of being in a place, and the static nature of painting from a photograph. I often find myself drawing reference from videos, photographs, plein-air pieces of my own, and masterpieces from other artists: the giants whose shoulders I stand on.