Climate Change Project 2022 – blog post seven
Developing the project has been a little slow of late – I am still researching reports every three or four days and I am now realising a lot of repetition of photos and videos used within them. I made a mistake last week when I finished a painting of the Amazon rainforest on fire and when went I back to double check the source I realised it was taken in 2019. This painting now can’t be used as part of the project but it has focussed my attention of getting the facts right and my research has taken a different route. It is quite difficult to find the source of a photo online, Google lens helps but even that tool doesn’t always give correct results.
I have discovered Greenpeace media which is an incredible library of photos and videos from their research and excursions which will prove useful I am sure as, to my delight, every photo is dated.
The latest paintings completed are ones which have taken a while to be realised. Back in March I read about a major drought In Argentina resulting in enormous fires sweeping across the wetlands, grasslands and forests of the Ibera National Park, 40 per cent of which has been burnt. Exacerbated by climate change their usual burning processes raged out of control.
Moving forward my intention is to develop my own practice: I have an uneasiness in blankly copying photos and my intention is to develop my painting throughout the project to be less representational and more expressive in content and style. I think it is shifting already although it is difficult to see my own work objectively until quite some time has passed.