Acrylic on canvas
37H x 49W with custom ash frame

In her I See You Series, Amy Stewart contemplates the “present absence” of those who have passed on. The natural world allows us to find distance from the hectic rush of the urban world, so it’s unsurprising that being surrounded by nature allows us the opportunity to meditate on our lives—including those we’ve loved and lost. But rather than feeling these losses only as intense grief, Stewart also finds a chance for reconnection in nature, and even for humour and delight. In the actions and curiosity of wildlife, she catches unexpected glimpses of old friends—an expression or movement that calls to mind the face or gesture of someone who now exists in memory.

For this reason, Stewart finds in nature the joyful impression that she can see her lost loved ones again, that they linger somewhere between the solid soil on which she stands and the haze of mountains and ocean in the distance. Her paintings portray the broad solid strokes of the landscape that surrounds her—horizons of mountain, water, and sky. But with floating lines slipping through the scene, Stewart playfully suggests that feeling we get when it seems as though we can almost see old friends in our company again.