Environmental Quadtych
By Ryza Isabel Gloria
Artist’s note: Environmental Quadtych
This was the final piece I created as part of my year 12 visual art major in 2022, so it has some sentimental value for me. The elements of this quadtych represent four environmental issues. During this time, I was painting a lot of landscapes focusing on the beauty of nature, so this piece was motivated by a desire to show the upsetting aspects of engaging with today’s environment. From left to right, they depict air pollution, bush fires, logging, and oil spills in the ocean. The paintings are composed to link to one another while remaining distinct as single images. Paintings one and two are joined together via the branch, paintings two and three via the tree trunk, and paintings 3 and 4 join through the black cloud. I thought this was a simple, but cool way to visually connect the paintings into a single concept. The quadtych’s goal was to personify the animals so they represented the prominent environmental issues in their ecosystem. All the animals are dead – I intended to make their bodies appear as though they were made from the environmental problem that killed them. The koala is made from fire, and the crow is intended to look like it was made from polluted air. The dear in the third painting is a ghost, but I don’t feel as though I made that sufficiently obvious. Despite the melancholic topic, I enjoyed the process of experimenting with vibrant colours and the texture of my brushstrokes. (If you would like to see the behind the scenes on how this quadtych was created, hit me up.)
