ON THE COVER

Autumn Fields
Acrylic on birch board, 24" x 32"
by Ron Roland

“There are so many interpretations of this work,” says Ron Roland of his contemporary, tree-filled landscapes, “but I feel like I’ve just got the first paragraph.” Roland was born and raised in New Orleans, and studied at the John McCrady Art School before moving to Pensacola in the ‘eighties. From that vantage point he paints work that evolved in the aftermath of Hurricane Ivan, when he became preoccupied with trees and the carnage visited upon them by the storm. He uses an impasto-style technique, building up textured landscapes of paint “to show our conflicted and sometimes ambivalent love affair with nature. The trees are unnatural, topiary-like, but they tower over the little houses in gigantic scale to show their perseverance.”
From Pensacola, Roland ranges around the southeast, and can be found at Louisiana arts markets including the Baton Rouge Arts Market the first Saturday, and New Orleans’ Palmer Park Market on the last Saturday of every month. Commissions, too.
www.ronrolandart.com.