Grant Wells

Grant Wells on his practice

My ideas for the paintings have stayed the same, but the way I approach them has changed throughout these last few months. I use an ink transfer process as well as paint. So there is a photographic element that is introduced to the painting. And I source the imagery from computer generated landscapes. I feel like I have a connection to California landscape painting, even though I’m not necessarily trying to depict or represent any kind of particular landscape, there’s always been this through-line of the West Coast. Now, since the quarantine, issues about going out into space and dealing with how we interact and move through space has really changed the way I look at open landscapes. So I guess coming back to the studio, I have a different perspective on ideas of looking at landscapes in a physical or virtual way. So in my paintings, I’m trying to blend these two ways of looking onto one surface.