Biography

A gallery operator for more than 20 years, Billy Hertz has evolved his semi-abstract landscapes to a pared down form and composition, allowing the balance of abstract and representational to exist with tension. Focusing on the relationship between land and water in natural harmony, Hertz displays earth from a bird’s eye view, creating beautiful aerial vistas.

Artist Statement

My paintings of landscapes have become far removed from any traditional definition of that genre; yet they still maintain a slender but sustaining thread to the concept of representational image. I paint 'arial' views of farmland - the furrows of plowed fields are rendered as transparent textures.

My fascination with the dark, fertile earth of cultivated fields led to loose interpretations of the landscapes; this manipulation into near abstraction by unorthodox perspectives i.e.: Clouds and fields occupying the same plane and geometric shapes built from layers of oil washes. The determined physicality of the color fields is accentuated by a collage element, so that the terrain is rendered with a dash of topical relief that introduces a new element of addition my vocabulary. The blurring of naturalism and non-representational in the imagery obfuscates the intention enough to create some mystery in a subject usually thought of as straightforward (the landscape) and hopefully seduces my viewers into completing the narrative for themselves.