IG: @ghuntley_art

Moving Through Water

Walking through the forest near my home, my nose numb and my face stinging from the cold, I feel the leaves and sticks crunch beneath my boots. I hear the wind rattling the branches above and the trees lightly groaning against its breath. I see the swirling patterns of wood grains on a fallen tree and the way the dappled sunlight illuminates a mushroom. When I walk down this old hiking trail, it clears my mind. I take my time and attempt to account of every tree, stone, snow drift and icicle. Appreciation for the simple beauty I can find here is refreshing and restorative. Acknowledging the beauty around us is healing. This feeling and the desire to recreate and share it is the inspiration for this work. Each painting is a meditation on, and acknowledgement of the small moments of beauty found in a stream along this trail. Paint made with hand crafted charcoal and water collected from the site, create an eternal tie to this place. They memorialize and capture the ephemeral, so that the viewer might experience it too; an instant of moving water, made still, or a bit of ice, made un-melting. This work can serve as a reminder, a memorial, evidence, or a way to share these moments.

Bio

Grace Huntley is a painter who predominantly uses egg-tempera and hand-crafted charcoal, accompanied by ink, watercolor, and various scavenged materials. Being from rural New England, Huntley was raised to appreciate the land. This way of life has left them with both an emotional and practical connection to the local forests that has influenced and inspired their artwork.
Huntley is attending the Maine College of Art & Design studying painting with an expected graduation date in the Spring 2024. They can often be found wandering the forest gathering inspiration, enjoying the company of animals and friends, or entranced by fantasy worlds.