An aerial view of much of the Canadian prairies is a patchwork grid, a geometric system of organization and division imposed upon the land. There is a long tradition on the prairies of documenting the land from the air. Small planes like the Cessna Skyhawk have been used since the 1950s to capture aerial views of countless homesteads, colourized and sold back to the farmers as an opportunity to display a portrait of home. Heather Cline’s Skyhawk series continues from this tradition, zooming out to take a wider view of the prairie landscape as seen from above. Highlighting the aesthetic interplay of the grid with the organic contours of the land, her works consider themes around land use, home, and what it means to inhabit the land.
Artist Statement
To observe the land from the sky is to be a witness to the blend of the manufactured and the natural. There is a profound beauty to the landscape and a strong sense of the history of land use. I feel that the process I am using to create my aerial landscapes mimics my complex feelings about human interaction with the land. Applying layers of almost sculptural paint, carving, sanding, and reworking the surface of the wooden panels I use as my working surface. I feel like my colour palette and the shift between loose paint application and small precise details captures the very evocative experience I have observing my habitat from the air. Pushing between abstraction and the real, trying to capture the impact of human intervention on our landscape.
- Heather Cline
