Judith Cain - work influenced by Kazakhstan (canvas)

Portfolio - Central Asia

Work on canvas influenced by a visit to Kazakhstan in 2003

next gallery click arrows

This is adventurous work in several ways. It springs from an encounter with the unfamiliar, in particular the environment and culture of Kazakhstan in Central Asia. Many of the paintings contain exquisite but powerful renderings of the flora of this region, the origin of many of our familiar garden flowers and plants, brought into Europe along the Silk Road wrapped in lengths of cloth.

In others, the intensly coloured petals and traceries of stems are set off against the strange landscape of contemporary Kazakhstan. Arid steppes, framed by the western extremity of the Himalayas, are sprinkled not only with flecks of colour but also the detritus of Kazakhstan's period as a part of the USSR: abandoned factories, collective farms, colossal irrigation and transport schemes.

Ian Heywood

click on image to see enlarged pop-up version