We all have memories of landscapes that we have experienced. These memories are often more a remembered beauty of a place, rather than a faithful pictorial representation. We often remember these landscapes because they have evoked a particular feeling experienced at the time. It is this idea that this series of works seeks to evoke through color and compositional relationships.
These images have been sourced from the imagination. Some artists of the past have encouraged the idea of stepping outside the studio and into the plein air. These works instead tap into a more personal resource of imagery.
They where first conceived by closing my eyes and observing remembered impressions of a collective place. Upon opening my eyes, I then sketched these impressions into the computer.
The 3D Computer Graphic (3DCG) medium was then ideal to further develop these images. 3DCG enables the ability to develop an image from a sketch - like a painting - coupled with the detail of a virtual camera.
Each sketch was then modeled in the computer - extruding a two dimensional impression into a third representational dimension. A virtual camera and lights were added, and flat-planed 'Tonal Sketches' were rendered. These images severed as a study for tonal weight and how they best conveyed the essence of the original idea.
The images were then further developed into color sketches. Each landscape element was assigned a color. Like an abstract painting the effect was studied of how hue, saturation and complementary contrasts could be used to set elements against each other. All in such a way as to evoke the emotions originally intended from the first sketches.
Lastly, a period of research was undertaken to familiarize and experiment with current technological developments in 3DCG. Looking at, for example, how to reproduce physically based reflections off ocean waves. Also, how Chaos Theory and Fractals have contributed to the idea of an ordered randomness to nature. How a single recursive formula can be used to create clouds, terrain, and trees just as a single melody can be used to construct an entire symphony.
These images can be experienced on many levels: From the technical technique, to landscapes as a memory. What would be most rewarding is to experience these images at their most simplest - the sharing with others of a special place.
Philippe Le Miere - 7th February, 2006