Robin Reynolds

Into the Forest We Go

Inspired by: Robert Adams, Bulldozed Slash

oil on panel

36” x 36”

2021

Robert Adam’s photograph, Bulldozed Slash, Tillamook County, Oregon encases the very essence of why I paint outside in nature. The complexities are found everyday, between the beauty and the disasters that are ongoing everywhere. The simple question, “Will my garden grow?”, takes on more significance as the climate crisis has yet to be taken as a real threat to the environment. As a plein air painter, I embrace this notion of beauty and create luminous, lush layered surfaces manipulating paint to create a dance between abstraction and representation. In my painting, Into The Forest We Go, I was fascinated with the depths of the dark woods against the beauty and fragility of the burgeoning lilies. The yellow flowers encapsulated my vision of hope through their growth, bloom and decay.

@robinreynolds7259

Robin Reynolds

Lessons in Green

vintage fabric and lace, vintage gardening and children’s books, acrylic paint, yarn

24” x 24”

2023

I am primarily a plein air painter, but I began making collages during the winter months to relive the beauty and memory of my summer garden. I create “painted collages” by layering transparencies from vintage gardening encyclopedias, linocut prints, antique lace, and a wide range of alternative mixed media. My process is improvisational, slowly building the collage surface by cutting, piecing, and layering diverse materials and manipulating varied mark-making. I construct complex works on paper that provide intricate texture, line, and color up close, and form, depth, and space from afar—a rich, year-round experience of the garden.

@Robinreynolds7259, /robin reynolds