Paintings

Elise Toups

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Paintings
Elise Toups (bio)

When i am in nature, I feel like a modern-day transcendentalist, a woman trudging through the outdoors in search of a landscape that brings me peace. The wilderness is my favorite retreat. Any frog will do. State parks, national parks, public lands, and nature preserves are windows into the world of the past. I believe that seeking refuge in nature recharges our minds.

I photograph and paint studies of these areas on my explorations, and I bring these home to examine and expand on in my studio. I paint as an homage to these spaces, reflecting on the beauty they provide and how increasingly rare they have become. I hope my work documenting these spaces reawakens people to the experience of being enamored by the outdoors and encourages them to explore nature for themselves. To me, landscapes also open up interior spaces and bring elements of the earth into the home. I celebrate the healing power of art by making and collecting it.

As a Louisiana native, I am concerned with our wetlands, the fastest-vanishing landmass on the planet. In today's political climate, so many of our national treasures which have been protected for decades, some for generations, are now at even more risk of disappearing. I am rooting for and documenting an Earth that will outlast us all. [End Page 424]