- Story by Sean McIntyre Photography by Don Denton
Jeremy HerndlB次元官网网址檚 final piece of advice before providing the address of his Victoria studio is to dress for the weather. Unusual, perhaps, but not too surprising for someone who specializes in vast oil paintings of primordial forestscapes.
He works out of a nondescript, detached suburban garage behind his home. The space echoes with the song of winter birds floating in from the glade out back, and the cold winter air sinks into the roomB次元官网网址檚 hard concrete floor. JeremyB次元官网网址檚 paintings cover the walls, like windows to a lost and changing world. Clad to endure the elements, Jeremy sits at his desk, finishing up a conversation with a supplier about an order of new canvases.
B次元官网网址淥ne day I just have to figure out heating because itB次元官网网址檚 so uncomfortable here for people,B次元官网网址� he says apologetically when he gets off the phone. B次元官网网址淚 do bundle up when IB次元官网网址檓 working in here. ItB次元官网网址檚 just like when IB次元官网网址檓 out there.B次元官网网址�
B次元官网网址淥ut thereB次元官网网址� is where Jeremy finds inspiration and undertakes the bulk of his artistic work. It is the wooded spaces in and around Victoria, areas where pockets of ancient forest persist within an increasingly developed and industrialized landscape.
Dog walkers, bird watchers and hikers in SaanichB次元官网网址檚 Francis/King Regional Park or in and around Port Renfrew might have spotted Jeremy at work. Though he may work in isolated spaces, heB次元官网网址檚 hard to miss.
Jeremy scouts locations by walking into the forest and sketching his surroundings until he lands upon a spot where he feels compelled to settle down. Whereas many artists would then bundle up those sketches and work on them from the comfort of a sheltered and preferably heated studio space, Jeremy goes home to prepare his gear for a return trip to the woods.
B次元官网网址淲ithin a kilometre walk is my limit because itB次元官网网址檚 a bit of a pain to carry all that stuff,B次元官网网址� he says.
Jeremy will retrace his steps to set up his easel, canvas and oils so that he may paint throughout the day and pack things up at dusk, only to repeat the process the following day. The routine will continue for about two weeks, a period in which Jeremy feels he can adequately capture a settingB次元官网网址檚 changing form and its subtle effect on him as observer and painter.
B次元官网网址淚B次元官网网址檓 out there and I can smell the trees and appreciate the light changes. I learn to really pay attention. In a way I feel like working outside is really special because these places get a chance to express themselves,B次元官网网址� he says.
B次元官网网址淏ecause IB次元官网网址檓 out there for days and days, I start to feel the little changes that happen and realize that maybe itB次元官网网址檚 not a one-way thing. It becomes a back-and-forth kind of thing. The weather starts to have an effect. It makes the paint thick or it makes the paint thin. Or the rain comes and it makes the paint slip off and stick somewhere else. ItB次元官网网址檚 almost as if the place is participating. I really love the possibility that this process of making a painting feels collaborative.B次元官网网址�
Years ago, when he was eight years old, JeremyB次元官网网址檚 son looked upon his fatherB次元官网网址檚 work as short movies. These seemingly static representations of landscape encompass the continuous play of light, wind, moisture and growth found within each setting.
B次元官网网址淚 would hope that somebody could appreciate that liveliness,B次元官网网址� he says.
In his recent works, Jeremy focuses largely on the natural. This new trail represents a transition from attempts to convey the liminal spaces between the constructed and the natural that have characterized much of JeremyB次元官网网址檚 previous work. In his very earliest artistic efforts, undertaken as a young boy whoB次元官网网址檇 moved from an off-grid family cabin near Squamish to downtown Toronto, Jeremy recalls painting many images of trains pointed towards the hills and forests. More recent projects comprise scenes of distant glass-clad condominiums glimpsed through ancient firs and swaying cedars, views that are characteristic of green spaces that endure amidst the built landscape of Vancouver, Surrey and other suburbs of the Lower Mainland.
B次元官网网址淲here do we really draw the line? Where does nature end and the human start? Is there such a thing as wilderness or is wilderness something a human could never know because as soon we encounter it, it ceases to be wild?B次元官网网址� he asks. B次元官网网址淚B次元官网网址檝e always wanted to draw that blur, to paint in that blur where humans and wilderness meet because I think it exemplifies the concept that humans are actually nature.
B次元官网网址淚 think that the old dualist thinking about humans and nature as completely separate has brought us to this situation now, where we find ourselves in such ecological trouble.B次元官网网址�
The human element may persist in the guise of his presence as the artist and observer, yet the canvas is now exclusively dedicated to representing JeremyB次元官网网址檚 close commune with the forest. It represents an opportunity for creative expression, spiritual fulfillment and existential satisfaction, however fleeting that may be.
B次元官网网址淚 really want to focus on the forest because it becomes a kind of meditation,B次元官网网址� he says. B次元官网网址淚tB次元官网网址檚 a very satisfying experience to hear the creatures and the forest and to have a conversation with these places, and then to offer that conversation out to people at this stage, I feel, is an important job.B次元官网网址�
People in the Victoria area can glimpse the result of JeremyB次元官网网址檚 conversations when his work is presented at Oak BayB次元官网网址檚 Winchester Galleries in May and June. Exhibitions are also slated for Calgary, Alta. and London, Ont. later in 2020. Further information about JeremyB次元官网网址檚 current projects can be obtained at or on Instagram at @jeremyherndl.
Story courtesy of , a Black Press Media publication
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