In this body of work entitled BOTANY, Marianne Van Lent explores the voluptuous and verdant quality of plant- life and foliage. Concerned with the notion of “being in nature” the images are conjured… up close and personal, and channeled through memory. The canvas overflows with sensuous color and bold gestural energy evoking the remembered wonder of nature. The botany Paintings depart somewhat from the ongoing theme in van Lent’s currant oeuvre where the threat of the imbalance of our natural world lurks behind the picture plane. The botany Paintings indulge the painter and the viewer in an idealized and unscathed view of pure beauty.

Van Lent maintains a dialogue with the history of painting. Vincent Van Gogh’s green paintings from Dr. Gatchett’s garden act as a catalyst shifting the subject from the abstract to the concrete and back again. . From time to time, van Lent copies a master painting in order to experiment with diverse painting techniques and styles. The image is dissolved and created again in multiple layers of drips, painting in and painting out. The copy is often shelved for some time but acts as a jumping off point for subsequent paintings. The copy is then altered and re-painted and morphs into a new painting, changed and serving as inspiration.