SYNC Gallery presents A Sense of Place: by Lydia Riegle

Lydia Riegle: Artist Statement

This entire body of new work is a postcard of my travels to New Zealand and Australia with my family in 2016. A Sense of Place permeates the abstract images and each are labeled to firmly place what the viewer sees to a specific geographic location.

But, to me, understanding a sense of place, involves not only paint but thinking about what place means. Travel is specific, as to New Zealand, but can be recalled as general, the experiences of travel and locations melded together. A sense of the place often possesses an identity and character, which is deeply felt by local people and visitors alike. To some it’s geographical; to some it’s a feeling or view held by people about their place in the place. When I ask my family what A Sense of Place means to them, they respond by saying that thoughts of place are intertwined with:

Their personal place in the experience or environment; the actual environmental or unique physical space, which is also made memorable by Culture, Memory, Story and Family I agree, and with that in mind, oil paint and canvas recall a sense of the places that made an impression on me: Milford Sound, Bay of Islands, Waiiti, the verdant expansiveness of New Zealand, and Hastings Reef on the Great Barrier Reef, AUS.

Image attached Riegle: "Milford Sound, New Zealand" Oil on Canvas, 40"x30" www.LydiaRiegle.com