I am a painter and sculptor whose work truly lives between those two genres. My sculptures - in wood, bronze, steel, and glass - have painterly elements, while my paintings borrow from sculpture to assert themselves into a 3-dimensional world.

 

Born in Brantford, Ontario, I now live in Guelph and divide my work between there and my studio in the Muskokas. I am an honours graduate from the Ontario College of Art and Design and am an elected member of the Society of Canadian Artists. In 2012 I was awarded an Emerging Artist Grant by the Ontario Arts Council. My work has been exhibited extensively throughout southern Ontario and is held in many private and corporate collections.

 

As a sculptor, painter and art educator, I recognize the beauty in the landscape as a place where our nostalgia lives. For me, it is an idealized space often reflecting human control. My trademark exploration of control and environment exploits ideals in Canadian landscape painting, taking a colourist approach to my landscape impressions while incorporating framing elements as sculptural devices and symbols of human interaction.

 

An early influence on my work was Max Oelschlaeger’s book “The Idea of Wilderness,” wherein it was proposed that until the agricultural revolution there was no such thing as wilderness. This notion led me to consider human connection as an environmental divide, defined by our struggle between constructed and wild spaces. This struggle for identity and control is depicted in many of my sculptural paintings and continues to be a primary influence in my work.

 

"The true meaning of life
is to plant trees,
under whose shade
you do not expect to sit."

~ Nelson Henderson

Who am I?

Tom Dietrich   Fine Artist