Landscape with Figures

Let the paint speak for itself

Though considered a painter, it may be more appropriate to understand Sam Howie as a conduit, or catalyst who sets up the conditions for his works, before stepping back to let the paint speak for itself.  

Begun in 2018, this work forms a part of Howie’s ongoing series Landscape with Figures. It is comprised of smaller panels, installed on the gallery wall in a grid, stretching floor to ceiling, and expanding out horizontally. The painting/s are abstract; lines, slashes, some solid, others speckled in appearance. Howie has chosen earthy colours; yellows, reds, greys, blacks, greens. It is both larger than human scale, reaching far up the wall and towering over the viewer, while also containing elements that are of a smaller-than-human scale and placed down by our feet. Each panel can be read as a human figure – in their simplest form, a line – in sweeping landscapes or as abstract images.  

The movement between two contradictory spaces is embedded within each material, process, and action. Howie makes a choice; how many panels to paint, how to hang them, the colours and materials to use. He then steps back and forfeits control; paint curls the paper, the panels are hung in the order they are picked from a pile. Each work is contained, but the grid also gives a sense that it could expand out and continue forever. Standing before it, I am at once reminded of the ever-expanding universe, mirrored in the grid, and my head hurts trying to think about what the universe is expanded into. [1] While at the same time it brings me comfort, the colours speaking to a childhood in a red brick house, surrounded by a lush garden of green foliage, yellow, white, and pink flowers. This ongoing investigation of the push/pull between the eternal and ephemeral, controlled and free are central to Howie’s experimental art practice.

 Like the work, the time that Sam and I spend in his studio also flows between states of serious art talk and casual conversation. We touch on topics as broad as the material qualities of paint, philosophy, Taylor Swift, Christmas plans, university days, growing families, and Sam’s upcoming exhibitions. I am given homework and I relish it.

Creating a space for contemplation presents a rare opportunity to think deeply, in a time and space in history where we are all connected, and our attention is pulled constantly every which way. Howie’s work is a subtle invitation to stop, consider both our daily troubles, our joys, and those bigger questions. But be warned, he will not give you answers. Just the spaces in which to seek them.

As a viewer, I feel like I am watching a game of Pong being played out across the wall. As soon as my mind settles to one idea, to one moment, it recognises the mirror thought, is rebounded and flung in the opposite direction, before hitting another wall and springing back again.

[1] This is a question that has bothered me for years. It regularly gives me a headache.