Gregory Botts, Arcadian Figure, #4

My work has always had its roots in landscape, its inner aspect as well as outer reality. My recent work uses the ‘backyard’ as an ideal kind of Arcadia. A figure has evolved in relation to a still life I keep, which I paint through the seasons in this yard. My work has naturally moved towards a more abstract form. I don’t necessarily accept a teleology or end point. I have discovered an idea of cycle where I move forward through ideas the still life presents in its seasonal aspects of winter, dream, through summer realization. In painting these thoughts are primarily represented by the paint and brush stroke, the line, the shapes and color idea. The backyard is somewhat tongue in cheek as I strive for an elegant and complex solution of this poetry. My new figure occupies this world, this ‘backyard,’ a center of the Earth.