"Painting intuitively-constructed landscapes, I strive for a metaphoric, poetic presence, rather than a literal representation of nature. A lyrical truth is achieved, not by mimicking nature but in response to it, constructing a two-dimensional, tactile and atmospheric world of forms in space. I am interested in landscape as an extension of the consciousness of the artist and observer; as a reference to my experience in the world. In my work, a painterly vocabulary of flatness and abstraction co-exists with a perceived, representational space."

Kamilla Talbot received a BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design and subsequently studied at the New York Studio School. Her paintings have been shown in numerous gallery exhibitions, including Bruno Marina Gallery, Lori Bookstein Fine Art, the Bowery Gallery, and Gallery Nortåh. She had a one-person show at the Johannes Larsen Museum in Denmark, in 2003. She has been the recipient of several residencies, including the World Views Residency in the World Trade Center; Skriduklaustur, Iceland; Pouch Cove Foundation, Newfoundland; I-Park, Connecticut; and the Vermont Studio Center. She has taught at the New York Studio School, and currently teaches at the National Academy School of Fine Arts.

I have spent several years drawing trees from observation; studying how their branches twist and turn, reach and retreat, linger… My new paintings are of trees painted from my imagination. A line becomes a branch, then a line again; it spurts, stops, twists, then breaks. The limbs are sometimes graceful; other times they are awkward, coarse, entangled gestures. Tension exists in reading the marks as both nature-based and pure abstraction.

The trees are painted in oil on translucent vellum stretched over mirror creating a subtle luminous quality and 3-dimensional effect. I try to capture the sublime quality of the Hudson River Luminists as well as the sense of limitless space in twelfth century Chinese Southern Sung landscapes. Within my paintings there are no cultural references; I aim to reflect the timelessness of nature in a fleeting moment.