Patrick Pettersson I like the way my painting can express in a non – linear fashion ideas having to do with the perception of nature and the way nature can be arranged into certain rational orders. Sometimes I think of painting as a metaphor for constructing a garden. It can be a way to analyze and to try to capture some of that mystery and beauty in nature that surpasses us and is in constant transformation.I make a regular habit of going out into nature and drawing. I do it sometimes in a carefully observed way that produces detailed botanical studies and sometimes in a free way that seeks to capture what a certain landscape can suggest to my imagination. I like to put together and contrast these two types of drawing, one more scientific and the other more fantastical, in order to see the different ways we can perceive our surroundings. In the studio, I use these drawings to carefully plan – out large paintings that can hopefully provoke better - evolved experiences of the harmony, equilibrium, and beauty one can find in the wild.A distinct quality of my work is the constant integration of drawing and wood engraving, into my painting. I come from a printmaking background and many of my paintings on wood are meticulously engraved as if they were printing blocks. The precision in this type of work contrasts highly with the more atmospheric way of oil painting. I enjoy both very much but it is together that they can express the dual way in which we can study and experience nature, our own and the one outside, through careful observation and through wild imagination. I think this dual way of perceiving is what we ultimately use to try to understand and navigate through our surroundings.I hope that each of my paintings offers a sense of being present in a certain place, in nature, one that is filtered through a tapestry of imagination, a crystallization of a very particular and subjective moment in time.