A Priddis artist with multiple talents in the visual arts is focusing his lens on just one art form over the next few weeks.
Seventy-five-year-old actor, teacher and artist Robert Greenwood will display more than 50 detailed photographs of trees he captured from around the world in an unnamed exhibit in the Sheep River Library art gallery in Turner Valley throughout October.
“I don’t like titles,” he said. “Too often that tells people specifically what to think and I don’t want to do that. I don’t want to force them to think that this is what they should be looking at. I want people to see what they want to see. I think that’s important.”
Greenwood’s photographs will be up on Oct. 4. The exhibit falls on the heels of his acrylic and oil pastel paintings he showcased in the same gallery last spring.
The photographs in his newest installment were captured in Vancouver, Montreal, Norway, Scotland and England – places he has recently traveled to.
Viewers will recognize images taken locally and Greenwood expects less-travelled viewers will be captivated by the images he captured in Europe.
“They are knottier and some of them are much older and much bigger,” he said. “They have a lot of character.”
Greenwood debuted the exhibit at a gallery in Montreal last June.
One young woman commented that it gave her the impression of walking through a forest, he said, and another looked at an image of a twisted root and bolted out of the door.
“I thought that was an interesting reaction,” he said. “Some of the images are very powerful and can bring up memories of where you have been and maybe that’s what happened to that woman.”
The photographs capture texture, light and shape, and were taken at various times of the day in every season, said Greenwood.
“Some of them are very close up and have a great sense of texture,” he said. “It’s a matter of perspective – how they are composed in the frame. Many people who came into the gallery in Montreal were drawn to certain ones. That will probably happen here, too.”
Greenwood said he captured a variety of species and situations, including the dependency of other life on the trees.
“They all seemed to vhave parasites growing on them,” he said of photos taken in Vancouver and Europe.
Greenwood expects viewers who take time to look at the photographs will feel a sense of calm from his images.
“It has to do with a sense of security,” he said. “A tree doesn’t move around very much. It’s a sense of stability and a sense of calmness, peacefulness. We go into nature to recollect our thoughts and our feelings.”
In some cases, Greenwood took several images of the same tree with a different outcome each time.
“Some trees I’ve taken pictures of at least 50 times because they are so different each time like the light on it when it’s cloudy, when it’s rainy, when it’s bright sunshine,” he said. “Every time it’s different.”
To learn more about Robert Greenwood or to see his art go to robertgreenwoodgallery.com
