I love olives and figs. Both are gifts from nature, but the olive must be coaxed from its bitter, unyielding state with brine, salt and time before its flavor can be unlocked and savored. The fig on the other hand develops a voluptuous sweetness on the tree and for those fortunate enough to pick one ripe, gives us riches right off the branch. The duality expressed in these two fruits, savory and sweet, bitter and luscious, unbearable and heavenly seems to me like every aspect of existence. It is the harshness of death amidst the glory of love and life.

I bring this perception to my paintings, infusing them with humanity and the belief that in the story of life the greatest glory is not available to us without the coexisting presence of heartbreak, loss, death. I seek this drama in landscapes and in the people inhabiting them. As writer Laurence Hazell once commented on my work, “his central intuition is that human activity is framed by nature but that human understanding fabricates the landscape.” In these landscapes and through the figures inhabiting them I find my truest place.

Peter Dickison