Murlough
Oil on canvas • 48" x 60" sold
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Engulfed
Oil on panel • 40" x 80" sold
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Afternoon Walk
Oil on canvas • 19" x 48" sold
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Jordan Valley
Oil on canvas • 48" x 60" sold
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Portals
Oil on canvas • 40" x 60"
sold
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Touch
Oil on canvas • 40" x 60"
sold
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Jessamine Station Road Peripheral
Oil on canvas • 48" x 54"
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County Mayo Highpoint II
Oil on canvas • 60" x 48"
sold
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County Mayo Highpoint III
Oil on canvas • 60" x 48"
sold
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Jessamine Valley Panaroma I
Oil on panel • 18" x 72"
sold
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Chris Segre-Lewis is a professor in the
Art Department at Asbury College in Wilmore, Kentucky, where he
lives with his wife.
“Sojourn”
In this body of paintings I
am comparing the Irish landscape to that of Central Kentucky. After
having spent nearly four months in Ireland in the summers of 1997
and 2007, I began to consider the visual similarities between the
two locations. Characteristics like the rolling green landscapes
and dry stone fences bridge the two vistas’ appearance but
also the geographic movement of the Irish people to America after
the Potato Famine of the late 1840’s. This theme is expressed
most directly in the title painting Sojourn in which the two specific
places of Jessamine County Kentucky and Saintfield Northern Ireland
are juxtaposed and apparently merging into one another. Thus, the
movement of the two landscapes into one another becomes a metaphor
for my travels as well as the immigration of the Irish people from
the home of the old country to that of the new world.
While comparing these two landscapes, I have also become concerned
with issues of stewardship and conservation of our countryside.
In the last ten years I have seen both the farms of the Bluegrass
and the countryside of Ireland overtaken with development. Whether
or not this “development” happens in the name of “progress”,
it saddens me to see the indiscriminate destruction of a landscape’s
old growth vegetation. It is my belief that it is possible for man
and nature to coexist respectfully. I hope viewers will consider
the value and necessity of preserving green spaces, not only for
the perpetuation of the environment but also for the uplifting of
our souls and spirits to God through our interaction with beauty
in nature.
Chris Segre-Lewis, 2008
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