Lynda Evans, Remembrance

 I work primarily in the genre of Figurative Realism, in a photo-realistic style that a friend coined: “Presence Realism.” Oil paintings on canvas and charcoal or mixed-media on museum-quality etching paper are crafted in extremely realistic detail based on photography. However, it is not the detail but the inner presence or essence of the subject that enlivens my work.

 The horse's beauty, grace, and nobility remind us to remember and reconnect with long-forgotten values.  When science & reason devalued and destroyed the innate wisdom of the body, great gains were made, but at the loss of the genius, power, and intimate connection of our body/mind/soul information.  Humanity lost its’ connection to the rhythms of nature.  As the age of mechanization and industrialization developed, intimate daily connection with nature was lost, and with it, a conscious, responsible, interdependent relationship with the earth disintegrated.   The horse, so central to life throughout history into the Twentieth Century, kept us connected to nature.  Now, the horse, no longer central to our lifestyle or economy, asks us to remember and reclaim what we have lost. 

REMEMBRANCE is my personal “WHY.”

Why do I paint and draw? Why the human body?  Why figures in water? Why am I now drawing and painting horses and other animals?  Such a different subject matter, but the reason is the same.

 I paint to REMEMBER who I really am and who we are.  I paint to articulate the nature of humanity and the nature within all of life. I paint to internally merge with that mysterious, energetic, life-giving flow incarnating all matter.  Dylan Thomas says it beautifully: “…the force that through the green fuse drives the flower”. I believe we are spiritual beings in physical form. This is not about the story of flesh, in all its heroism, search for meaning, hopes, fears, addictions, and movement into ultimate disintegration. It is about the illusion of flesh and the possibility of the heights to which the human spirit may rise. Remembrance is about the flash of understanding that happens when we recall we are not separate but united. It is about our Oneness.  Remembrance is also a call to action… a reminder to keep something alive that is essential to LIFE.

 I paint to let the soul bubble up and sing!