The process of painting is, for me, a search for a passageway into a particular state of mind. Sometimes I begin by painting non representational shapes until I feel some stirring of feeling and a recognition of imagery. Sometimes I begin with an interest in something I wish to know more about. In my last group of paintings I explored early photographic studies of figures in motion and the subtle impressions of vulnerability inherent in specific movements.

As I embark on this new body of work I am drawn to the recorded visual history of the Southern Gulf Islands of British Columbia, where I now live. This is a part of the world connected by water, the Inside Passage, a natural protected waterway stretching from Seattle to Juneau. Here there is an ever changing and timeless relationship between the water and the land, the tides and the currents, and between the rich and dynamic natural environment and the people who live and work within it.

Philip Buller 2010