Part of an ongoing series

'Altered Perceptions" are mixed media abstract works on canvas,  60x60cm.  The medium used are washes with layers of thicker vibrant acrylic paints, applied by using a combination of brushes, splattering techniques and palette knives. I also apply ink,and oil pastels. After embedding the collaged photo image into the abstract I finally emboss with gold leaf.

Altered perception, Mixed Medium, 2019
by yvonne marie forster

Over the last few years my practise has considered the impact that human activity has on our planets  eco-systems.
I have explored how industrialised capitalism continually creates and propagates new senses of needs and wants in order to perpetuate itself. The subsequent, internalised desire to consume as an affirmation of self and identity has inadvertently resulted in our alienation from both community and the natural world : The natural world historically seen and perceived as an unlimited abstracted resource of raw materials - And sadly a dumping ground for our human waste.


In the late 1940s Philosopher Conservationist Aldo Leopold's 

perceptive observations still resonate today.....
If we fail to reconnect with nature, both nature and humanity
will suffer."
This recent work is inspired by Rachel Carson’s environmental book, "Silent Spring." The imagery I create are responses to our abstracted view of nature where interconnectivity has often been neglected. Pesticides used to deal with one species of fauna have had (predictable) consequences for other insect species, bees,butterflies and birds. 



Altered Perceptions' are mixed media paintings that portray a solitary butterfly

Altered Perceptions Mixed Media o n
canvas, 2019, by yvoone m 

and/or bird in a vibrant but abstracted space embedded with the phrase....

" Humankind...we are but one thread ...all things connect." The creatures isolated from their natural habitats emphasising the precarious nature of fragile ecosystems when impacted by industrial pesticide's.

On a positive note George Monbiot stated : "An ounce of hope is worth a ton of despair" our current realisation of the need to take stock is hopefully gaining momentum....