An exploration of the life found hidden below a bed of rocks or a low hanging branch, Graham Marshall’s latest collection of acrylic paintings illuminates the wild world lying beneath our observation and lurking in our imagination. His paintings blend the natural with the emotively surreal in a fantastical children’s storybook fashion that moves the viewer’s eye to undiscovered depths of forests, streams, and the neighbor’s bushes.

Rich, deep hues lend life to the intoxicating shadows that cast a nighttime perspective over many of the paintings in “Nature’s Claim.” The scenes could just as easily be underwater as under a starry sky. His paintings not only capture a view of the natural world but also its magical essence: the floral tentacles aglow in “Yellow Tongues,” the vibrant whimsy of “Fish Out of Water.”

He urges us to explore and examine “the verdant spaces we are rapidly losing to urbanization and climate change.” Marshall’s aim with the exhibit is to reveal the comfort he finds in these wild spaces that are “hidden and safe from the larger world.” He describes these views into nature as “intimate,” with a stillness created amid the twisted, colorfully layered plantscapes. The details within the immersive works feel like the reward for standing quietly enough among nature for it to reveal itself to you.

Nature’s Claim will be on display in the Harrison Center’s Gallery Annex for the month of May. The exhibit can be viewed by appointment as well as in our online gallery, where all pieces are available for purchase.

Nature's Claim