Alix Bacon
"I work primarily as a landscape painter. I am drawn to landscape not only as an arena within which to conceptualize some of the more formal issues of painting but also because of its relevance now as we re-examine our relationship with nature and look for new ways to preserve our environment.
I find beauty in the less obvious aspects of nature. There are landscapes hidden in all of our surroundings, and my paintings hopefully challenge viewers to discover them.
I use the visual facts of a scene as a point of departure, exaggerating this color or eliminating that object in order to distill what is most important and to convey a sense of place. I’d like to think that the experience of moving up to a painting and exploring the beauty of its glazes or a brushstroke can be akin to the beauty felt when sitting on a rock with the wind in one’s face and looking down from the vista to explore a blade of grass.
The literature that I have been reading with relation to site planning, landscape architecture and rural preservation, has given me new insight into my work as a landscape painter and the role of landscape and nature in all of our lives, as individuals and community members."