AS THE FIELD SHIFTS No.01’ by Jane Holden, Acrylic on Birch, 10” x 10”, https://holdenartstudio.ca/2025-new-paintings/
I had set my eyes on something new when I began observing the field, easily drawn into the vast openness of the field, exploring the ever changing shifts of light and colour. I spent time noticing the field everyday through all four seasons. Not unlike someone binge watching television, I never tire of it. It is from within the solitude of these simple quiet musings that a field painting is brought into the world.
Walking within nature, the field is a vast expansive space where one can be alone, discover the quiet rhythms of the natural world, observe ever changing seasons and take a moment in quiet stillness. I began spending my time living more closely connected with the natural world thus deepening my bond with nature like never before. Awareness of how the field shifts with time became top of mind and I began to document changes through light and colour. In tandem, I started to work on establishing a palette to represent the field and the effects of light observed through colour on the landscape. The beauty within the rural landscape is captured through colour and light in my paintings.
It has taken a years time to deepen the bond that was needed to paint a field painting intimately. In fact, when I look back at my field paintings it is through each season that my paintings of the field have evolved. Each season I worked on a palette to capture the shifting colour and light on the field, as I saw it. Through the changing light of the seasons, the shapes within the landscape revealed themselves to me, allowing me to deconstruct forms in my paintings. Over time this also allowed for me to settle on the elements and techniques that make a good field painting. After a year of solitude in simple quiet musings and shifts on the field through colour and light, I painted ‘AS THE FIELD SHIFTS NO.01’. The first of many field paintings which will be painted over time and throughout the seasons.
Jane Holden Art 