Women of the Forest

2018 - 2020

 

 

James Whitington statement about the work:

 

In 1990 I was invited to exhibit paintings in a solo exhibition at the Blaxland Gallery in Sydney. The exhibition was entitled “The Tree”. The biomorphic focus to my work has continued to the present day, either as non-figuration or figuration. My current works “Women of the Forest” gather ancient mythology and embody it in an Australian forest landscape. The ancient nature myths of Cybele (The Phrygian Anatolian goddess of Nature handed down to the Greeks as Rhea and Demeter) are recontextualised. The trees in my works are eucalypts and the limbs of the figures and the trees are often juxtaposed and aligned. Behind the work is a biocentric view that supports the natural environment against anthropocentric exploitation and establishes a sense of harmony with nature.