Ethereal Uyuni

Ethereal Uyuni

Medium: Oil paint, pigment and mediums on canvas
Size: 50 × 70 × 4 cm
Framed: 54.5 × 74.5 × 6 cm 

Bolivia’s Uyuni Salt Flats are among the most extraordinary places I have ever visited. During the rainy season, a thin veil of water transforms the vast salt plain into a giant mirror.

Standing there, it was difficult to tell where earth ended and sky began. People and vehicles appeared to float in space, suspended between the two. It was a spectacular, strangely disorientating experience, unlike anything I had known before.

In Ethereal Uyuni, I hoped to capture something of the surreal nature of that place. Over many months, layers of paint, pigment and medium were encouraged to flow and settle in different directions across the canvas, echoing the shifting reflections and dissolving horizons that made the salt flats so disorientating.