Lee Rousell Artist Statement

I have a Masters in Fine Art. I live with Bipolar, I express myself in a way that allows my work to contain it, so that way it can be spoken about in a natural way. The relationship to the sublime is in the symptoms that can exaggerate and fill me with awe and terror when they are at their extremes. I work, influenced by the landscape, with oil paint, photography and video. The Ashdown Forest is local, and is the muse I immerse myself in. It survives it's cycles and all weathers. It is characterised by its ever changing moods, that seem to match my own. Equiped with a camera and drawing materials to capture the light and embrace the feelings that I am experiencing at the time. The process continues in the studio with oil paint and canvas, with those feelings guiding the way I paint, as I try to make sense of them. The photography and videos are immediate records for me to report back, that I had made it there. The drawings are reactions. The oils have the texture that is tactile to the painter, they also have the energy that can be present during the highs and lows the the bipolar conjures up at any given time.