Brazil & the Amazon River Basin

Artist’s Statement

Brazil and the Amazon River Basin have been the subject and inspiration of my work for more than thirty years.  Naturalistic forms resembling beeves, vertebrae, cocoons, anthills, platt forms and insects are spread across the surface of the work.  The Amazon River is an apt metaphor for the act of churning up remembered objects and sights, gathered while traveling along its rough course.  

The work transcribes a memory of these objects and impressions of what was seen and felt.  In its flow, the river boils and object to the surface only to swallow it up again to resurface later.  My palette is often subdued beneath a layer of darkness, suggesting mystery.  These impressions are a memory of the forever bound on both sides by a high, dark jungle; foreboding and beautiful. When the jungle takes you in, it takes you in whole.  

In visiting the region three or four times a year I find that the landscape has many moods.  These new paintings show the contrast and conflict between the beauty of the Amazon and its continued destruction. Modern man sees the rainforest as a tremendous resource and at the same time we are in the process of depleting it.  Although the indigenous groups have lived harmoniously in the that environment for generations, we cannot yet find the balance needed to protect this resource for the future.

Bob Nugent

2018