Long Valley by Candice Bohannon

"Long Valley is a contemplative painting.  In it, a lone figure stands on a hilltop and gazes into a great and murky distance.  It is reminiscent of a work I have always admired by the great German romantic artist Caspar David Friedrich, Wanderer above the Sea of Fog, painted in 1818.  An introspective piece, it highlights the importance of an individual life, a personal quest.  It shares so beautifully both the quiet loneliness and immense grandeur of the individual being within this vast world. It was a great inspiration while I was working on Long Valley.  In my painting, the valley, with it's uncertain weather and fading light is a metaphor for an unknown future.  The woman wrapped in a handmade embroidered cloak, is symbolic of the individual within the context of the life they are living: past achievements, adopted community, family, shared history, and a lifetime of decisions and actions, the unique context of a single human life.  It is a beautiful, unique creation.  Wrapped in this protective glittering finery, she stands alone contemplating the distant valley. It is a meditation on the future, the past, this moment and our place within it as we look out onto the great unknown." -  Candice Bohannon