Misty Landscapes

Exhibition Līga Purmale. The Garden of Past Pleasures

In the early 1980s, Līga Purmale turns to landscape painting, discarding the perfectionist close-ups. She strives to depict everything precisely as it is. During this period, the artist painted her characteristic misty landscapes and captured natural scenery untouched by man (as in the painting After the Storm, which is somewhat reminiscent of Latvian painter Jūlijs Feders' (1838–1909) painting of the same title) as well as landscapes showing the presence of contemporary humans with their technological tools, although the human being only appears as a miniature silhouette. Discarding all that is unnecessary, the landscape became emptier, lighter, and more abstract over time. This approach reached its culmination in the early 90s when the mist dominated, and only vague contours of the landscape were visible in the paintings. In these works, the artist strives to achieve an atmosphere, the feeling of air in the painting.