VALERY SUTHERLAND artist statement.

My 'Elements' series of acrylic paintings were basically intuitive but as the series evolved, I began to make preliminary sketches that sometimes included digital imagery of areas that could be sky or water as well as real and imagined architectural drawings or satellite photos of towns and cities. The later paintings are also concerned with the passage of time and sometimes, space, and the changes that can ensue. I consider the paintings to be landscapes, albeit somewhat abstract ones.

On a road trip to Florida, I sketched and photographed some of the things that we saw on our journey. I used some of those images for the 'Road Trip' series of acrylic paintings, together with some of my digital images. For the 'Reflections' series of paintings, photographs of the reflection on a granite countertop of the white oak behind my house, were the source material. Other digital images that I used were of split logs, leaves and plants. I also began to superimpose images onto the paintings, almost in the manner of graffiti. I consider the paintings to be abstract landscapes.

For a number of years I created painted wood sculptures. They were constructed from layered plywood whose surfaces were chiseled or built up using acrylic mediums. Some were free-standing but most were hung on the wall. A number of the wall pieces were abstract but others were about social issues, artists, opera and the passage of time.