Scott Prior
Apple Tree at Sunrise, 2004
Path on Old Railroad Embankment, 2003
Lake at Twilight, 2003I believe that the underlying subject of all landscape painting is the conflict between Nature and Man, which is sometimes great and cataclysmic—as between the ocean and a waterfront condo, or an atom bomb and the Earth—but also sometimes small and subtle, as between garden clippers and a weed. Since childhood I have enjoyed discovering locations where it seems to me that nature and man are on equal footing. To me, the chance encounter of an abandoned tree house or a piece of rusted machinery in the woods is deliciously humorous and satisfying. I am also reminded of the mortality of things and the passage of time. It occurs to me that the battle between Nature and Man may not be already won. Mankind’s advances appear vulnerable, some grass has broken the concrete, and Nature, not boasting, has impressed me with its humility and strength.