Richard Collens
Richard Collens is a lifelong artist and photographer, originally from Southwestern Ontario, but calling Calgary Alberta home for the last 37 years. He has an insatiable desire for adventure, road trips and finding beauty in natural surroundings; "making the journey the destination". Although he has had a camera in his hand since he was young, he initially used his photographs as references for drawings and paintings that he was creating at the time. He started taking his photography more seriously later in life, focusing more on the quality, hygiene and artistry of his images.
Art and photography is a passion that helps Richard slow down the otherwise excessively fast pace of life. Where the art of painting and drawing allows Richard to slow down, he is in control and can create whatever comes to mind, however he would like it to appear, with whatever media he happens to choose. Richard finds Photography more challenging, because it requires more perception; looking deeper into the scenery, finding the moment in time and trying to find that spirit that lives within that scenery, since he is not in control of the surroundings. Richard strives to find that artistic image and spirit wherever he goes and hopes to capture it when he has his camera in his hand.
"For me, the journey IS the destination. It's amazing what you find off the beaten path; pristine wilderness, forgotten bits of a previous settlement and a good cross section of life and natural history. I like to mix life and landscape, reclamation, regeneration, the defiance and the resilience of nature. The selections I make for my portfolio have a soul in them that speak to me. Everything has a spirit within it, and if you can capture that soul in an image, it's magic." – Richard Collens
“Subconscious Emotion”
Photography is typically a passion that not only helps me slow down the pace of life, but also allows me to explore a little deeper, not only into the scenery, but a part of myself that is often conveyed into the images I capture.
The work I have selected were largely taken at a point during Covid where the loss of work, difficulty finding more work and the general lockdown of life, prompted the need to get out into outdoor isolation, in an attempt to regain motivation, and the peace of mind that some semblance of normalcy can bring.
Through the ghost towns and backroads, there seemed to be a focus of my emotion on the views I was drawn to, that seemed analogous to the circumstance that much of the world was realizing. Searching through the stagnant decay of “lockdown” for the light outside, the love outside, some kind of life other than the life we had come to live during Covid. This work represents that subconscious emotion, that seemed to prevail; a rage against the dying of the light as Dylan Thomas so eloquently put it.
The journey is the destination.
LOVE IS OUT THE WINDOW
Limited Edition of 4, signed and numbered
2020
Hahnemuhle Museum Etching cotton rag
16" x 20"
$950 Framed
$350 Unframed
Click image for the purchase page
NO QUARTER FOR THE SHERIFF
Limited Edition of 4, signed and numbered
2019
Hahnemuhle Museum Etching cotton rag
16" x 20"
$950 Framed
$350 Unframed
Click image for the purchase page
THE TANK IS FULL
Limited Edition of 4, signed and numbered
2020
Hahnemuhle Museum Etching cotton rag
16" x 20"
$950 Framed
$350 Unframed
Click image for the purchase page
Pool View
Limited Edition of 4, signed and numbered
2020
Hahnemuhle Museum Etching cotton rag
16" x 20"
$950 Framed
$350 Unframed
Click image for the purchase page
