Anita Dore

I’ve been cold water plunging for the past year and it has helped me through some difficult health and emotional challenges. It’s also given me inspiration for these paintings by enabling me to more deeply consider the water itself, the state of being in the water, and the healing powers of water.

As a landscape painter and nature-lover living in the city, I find myself seeking greenery among the built environments. Looking down driveways, into backyards and hidden parking lots, and up to balconies and terraces I see interesting compositions in the shapes and textures of architecture, streetscapes, and man-made objects that are juxtaposed with that of plants, trees, and gardens.

Using graphic design principles and exploring color theory, I then distill the images into abstract and semi-abstract works. I exaggerate the spatial relationships that attracted me to the scene in the first place by adding geometric shapes and using non-representational colors. These alterations push these scenes away from reality.

For me these works feel like two paintings merged into one, possibly reflecting the current duality of Luxembourg City: traditional European “charm” and agricultural history living side by side with modern development and rapid change. And as I develop these works I also reflect upon larger themes: how people interact with and create personal havens within the urban environment, how the “past lives” of cities reveal themselves to us, how cities change as they grow, and how the natural coexists with the urban.

These collages of newsprint, acrylic coated papers, pastels, and color-aid papers explore form, color, and contrasts between materials.

Weekly escapes from my city apartment to the forests and trails of Luxembourg helped me reflect on my current living situation and reconnect to my identity as someone who grew up in and loved the countryside. I noticed that my “exposures” to nature were very deliberate, planned, and almost ritualistic. I realized I was “forest bathing” without yet having a name for it. I read the books “The Overstory” and “The Secret Life of Trees,” and I became curious about how forests have their own social networks and ways of communicating. These works come from spending time in the forest, looking, listening, and imagining what goes on beyond what is visible to me.

These paintings explore form, color, and what happens where contrasting materials meet. Some of these works have been translated into large scale murals.

This is a very small assortment of paintings inspired by living, traveling, and creating on different bodies of water.