SUPER NATURE
By Dirk Lehr

The title of the exhibition “Super Nature” evokes the experiences of humans in the natural world. The paintings explore the pure reverie of personal encounters and the wonder of the untamed at first hand. Many of the paintings portray solitary figures in a kind of ecstasy, heightened by a connection to the wild. The fragility of the environment and its constant changing character, the planet plummeting through space to its possible desecration by our own hands is an echo that is present in the landscapes. The works foster feelings of the ephemeral and spiritual while highlighting our intricate relationship with the environment, urging us to reflect on our place within the broader tapestry of nature and to recognize the importance of preserving its beauty and integrity. Artists have explored this connection for many centuries and have gone to extremes to immerse themselves in the Sublime; William Turner strapped himself to the mast of a ship in a storm in order to paint the feeling of it.  

   The experience of the sublime involves a personal fear, which is replaced by a sense of awe when confronted with a vista exhibiting superior might. It overwhelms our powers of perception and imagination and is contained by and serves to vivify our powers of rational comprehension. Winter attempts to convey a personal experience of nature through heightened colour and immersive landscapes. Sometimes surrealist elements are added in order to highlight the unique aesthetic experience of the solitary figure. Several paintings portray protagonists who have painted themselves green, somehow inviting the arborous embrace of oak leaves or ivy that may perhaps absorb them into the forest. 

    In the captivating portrayal of a man standing atop a solitary rock amidst the flowing currents of a river, “The Wanderer and the River Song” 2024 offers a profound meditation on humanity's relationship with nature. The figure's stance echoes a sense of contemplation and introspection, reminiscent of the protagonist in Caspar David Friedrich's iconic painting "Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog" 1817.  Like Friedrich's wanderer, this man stands as a solitary observer amidst the vastness of the natural world, confronting its elemental forces with a mixture of awe and humility. The river symbolizes the eternal flow of time and the transient nature of existence; with sweeping abstract forms that appear to spring from the protagonist’s own consciousness. The water is chaotic and wild while the rock appears like a steadfast anchor amidst life's tumultuous currents. Together, they again evoke the sublime – a convergence of beauty, awe, and terror that transcends human understanding. A camp or queer quality can also be detected in the figures stance and his pink shorts. In some ways the heightened colour of the landscape reflect this campness, mirroring this sensibility. It can also not be ignored that the title of the exhibition was - as the artist remarked - taken from the title of the 1977 disco hit called “Supernature” by Cerrone.

    Joseph Addison – essayist and poet - embarked on the Grand Tour in 1699 and commented, "The Alps fill the mind with an agreeable kind of horror". It is also notable that in writing on the "Sublime in external Nature", he does not use the term "sublime" but uses semi-synonymous terms such as "unbounded", "unlimited", "spacious", "greatness", and on occasion terms denoting excess. "Time Clocks" is a mesmerizing painting that invites viewers into a dreamscape where a figure floats gently through a landscape adorned with majestic mountains in the distance. In the foreground, vibrant dandelions sway gracefully, their delicate white tufts reminiscent of the childhood game of dandelion clocks. This juxtaposition of natural elements and human imagination serves as a poignant reflection on the ephemeral nature of time. As the figure navigates this ethereal realm, surrounded by the beauty of nature, one is reminded of the transient moments captured in the simple act of blowing dandelion seeds into the wind. Just as the seeds disperse with the breeze, so too does time move in a perpetual cycle of beginnings and endings. Through "Time Clocks," the artist invites us to contemplate the passage of time and the fleeting nature of existence, urging us to cherish each moment and embrace the timeless beauty of the world around us.

    Winter is a keen scuba diver and his gravity defying images are sometimes transposed from the ocean. He has also made - over the last twenty years - detailed botanical pencil drawings of strange cosmological planets made of birds and flowers and flying figures. For “Super Nature” he has developed his drawing technique further with Indian ink. The new drawing depicts an octopus, an ancient creature that has survived five mass extinctions. Cephalopods first appeared on Earth, 530 million years ago. In popular imagination they are often depicted as alien having developed in a completely different branch of evolution to our own. They are the monsters from the deep and the feared Kraken. Winter explores ideas of their apparent intelligence and also their ink producing ability – something he has experienced first hand while diving. His conclusion links their ink production to writing, word-making and intelligent communication. Clouds of ink produced by the octopus morph into written sentences. These are sentences quoted from “Moby Dick”, the 1851 novel by Herman Melville about Captain Ahab’s hopeless and fanatical quest to kill the mysterious white whale. This quest eventually destroys all on board the ship except one. Through Melville we are brought back to reflections on humanity's place within the larger cosmos and the enduring power of nature to inspire wonder, reverence and also terror.