Artist Statement

For me, painting is a meditation, an act of veneration. It is an opportunity to pay homage to the magnificent beauty of the natural environment, and to interact with that beauty in an act of creation. The languid movement of clouds, the ever-changing light that illuminates our surroundings and shifts the colors of a landscape as the sun makes its daily journey across the sky beckons me to capture this grace on canvas. It seems only natural to express my sense of fascination and my appreciation for the natural world with brush stroke and color, and in this I am infinitely rewarded with a sense of joy and satisfaction that never diminishes. The subjects I paint allow me to stop, look around, and appreciate how truly breathtaking this earth really is. I want to take the viewer with me, to a place out of time, where we lose ourselves in observation and are enveloped by the brilliance of the natural world.

As a landscape painter, the challenge to capture the spontaneity of a moment in time before it slips irretrievably into nonexistence fascinates me. The beauty and evanescence of the natural environment with its ever-shifting sky, the variegated hues in diurnal procession, inspire a sense of awe. I allow myself the freedom to work from my mind's eye, memory, and photographs, embellishing and rephrasing the landscapes I encounter. My work is oil based. To me oil is gutsy and bold; a natural choice for creating luminous, vibrant, color saturated works. Silky, smooth, tactile and sensual, the process of moving oil on canvas inspires me. Never simple recreations of a still scene, serendipity and inventive play govern the process of painting for me.

I am forever taking in my surroundings, drawing inspiration from what I see. There is something about the craggy texture and shape of a mountain range, the mysterious depths of a body of water, and the color rich drama of a skyscape, that sets me on a quest to explore and express form and color through painting. It is my hope to share my wonderment with others. This universe that sustains us is majestic, fragile, mysterious, and worthy of our attention and care.

--Zoë Ann Fischer