MARY GRAHAM, FRAMED OILS:
Absence & Presence
"Dragonflys in Summer Mountains" Pentaptych,
24" x 60," Oil on linen on panel
24" x 60," Oil on linen on panel
In my paintings, I try to capture a sense of the passage of time, an extended experience of presence and attention. The desire to see, know and understand the natural world more intimately draws me into the mountains and woods, into relationship with the wonderful “otherness” of nature. I know what John Muir meant when he stated, “The clearest way into the Universe is through a forest wilderness.”
By focussing on the particular, alert to sounds, sights, and fragrances, I come to know my environment to be deeply inhabited by living things and feel myself a part of this symbiotic kinship. Each place has its own very specific and individual attributes, a feeling well expressed by the poet Novalis: “A landscape must be felt like a body. Every landscape is an ideal body for a particular kind of spirit.” Balancing these two forms of attention, I search for the poetry of a given place.
My working process has always included painting and drawing outdoors, which is the foundation for all that follows. My paintings are created from these experiences and memories, searching for visual metaphors for the complexity of human thought in relation to place, to landscape, and to nature. I find beauty in the tensions and oppositions of this dynamic relationship.
By focussing on the particular, alert to sounds, sights, and fragrances, I come to know my environment to be deeply inhabited by living things and feel myself a part of this symbiotic kinship. Each place has its own very specific and individual attributes, a feeling well expressed by the poet Novalis: “A landscape must be felt like a body. Every landscape is an ideal body for a particular kind of spirit.” Balancing these two forms of attention, I search for the poetry of a given place.
My working process has always included painting and drawing outdoors, which is the foundation for all that follows. My paintings are created from these experiences and memories, searching for visual metaphors for the complexity of human thought in relation to place, to landscape, and to nature. I find beauty in the tensions and oppositions of this dynamic relationship.
"Who can leave the world’s tangles behind,
and sit with me among these white clouds?"
HAN SHAN (c. 7th - 9th centuries)
Translation by David Hinton
and sit with me among these white clouds?"
HAN SHAN (c. 7th - 9th centuries)
Translation by David Hinton
"Pines in Mist and Clouds"
Oil on linen on panel, 30" x 20"
Oil on linen on panel, 30" x 20"
"Foothills"
Oil on linen on panel, 30" x 18"
Oil on linen on panel, 30" x 18"
"Pondicherry
Oil on linen on panel, 24" x 36"
Oil on linen on panel, 24" x 36"
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"Kaaterskill Falls" "Nine Dragon Falls"
Oil on linen on panel, 30" x 20" Oil on linen on panel, 30" x 20"
Oil on linen on panel, 30" x 20" Oil on linen on panel, 30" x 20"
"High Slopes of Mount Washington"
Oil on linen, 36” x 48”
Oil on linen, 36” x 48”
"Gazing all day into mountains, I can’t get enough of mountains
Retire into mountains, and mountains become your old masters
when mountain blossoms scatter away, mountains always remain
and in empty mountain stream water, mountains deepen idleness."
WANG AN-SHIH (1021 - 1086)
Retire into mountains, and mountains become your old masters
when mountain blossoms scatter away, mountains always remain
and in empty mountain stream water, mountains deepen idleness."
WANG AN-SHIH (1021 - 1086)
"Solitary"
Oil on linen on panel, 18" x 24" "…..but this far up, pines need no wind to sing".
HAN SHAN (c. 7th—9th centuries) Translation by David Hinton 
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"Lake Retreat"
Oil on panel, 18" x 24" 
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"Peak" "Peach Blossom Gorge"
Oil on linen on panel, 30" x 30" Oil on canvas, 36" x 30"
Oil on linen on panel, 30" x 30" Oil on canvas, 36" x 30"
"No one knows this mountain I inhabit
deep in white clouds forever empty, silent."
HAN SHAN (c. 7th—9th centuries)
Translation by David Hinton
deep in white clouds forever empty, silent."
HAN SHAN (c. 7th—9th centuries)
Translation by David Hinton
"Rising"
Oil on linen on panel, 24" x 36"
Oil on linen on panel, 24" x 36"
"The birds have vanished down the sky
Now the last cloud drains away.
We sit together, the mountain and me,
until only the mountain remains."
LI PO (701—762)
Translation by Sam Hamill
Now the last cloud drains away.
We sit together, the mountain and me,
until only the mountain remains."
LI PO (701—762)
Translation by Sam Hamill
"Land's End""
Oil on linen, 24" x 36"
Oil on linen, 24" x 36"
"October Dawn"
Oil on linen on panel, 24" x 30"
Oil on linen on panel, 24" x 30"
"Sea of Clouds
Oil on linen on panel, 24" x 30"
Oil on linen on panel, 24" x 30"
"I’ve lived in the country long enough to know its wild joys: it feels like I’m a child back home in my old village again..
Leaving the city today, I put all that gritty dust behind me,
and facing mountains and valleys, feel them enter my eyes."
WANG AN-SHIH (1021 - 1086)
Translation by David Hinton
Leaving the city today, I put all that gritty dust behind me,
and facing mountains and valleys, feel them enter my eyes."
WANG AN-SHIH (1021 - 1086)
Translation by David Hinton
"Forest Bathing"
Oil on linen, 24" x 20"
Oil on linen, 24" x 20"
No one seen. In empty mountains,
hints of drifting voice, no more.
Entering these deep woods, late sun--
light ablaze on green moss, rising.
WANG WEI (701-761)
Translation by David Hinton
hints of drifting voice, no more.
Entering these deep woods, late sun--
light ablaze on green moss, rising.
WANG WEI (701-761)
Translation by David Hinton
"Caribu Summit"
Oil on linen on panel, 24" x 36"
Oil on linen on panel, 24" x 36"
"Once you realize this floating life is the perfect mirage of change,
it’s breathtaking - this wild joy at wandering boundless and free."
HAN SHAN (c. 7th—9th centuries)
Translation by David Hinton
it’s breathtaking - this wild joy at wandering boundless and free."
HAN SHAN (c. 7th—9th centuries)
Translation by David Hinton
"Summer Moon"
Oil on linen on panel, 24" x 36"
Oil on linen on panel, 24" x 36"
