Seascapes: April Gornik

April Gornik (American, b. 1953) has painted landscapes since the 1980s, at first working primarily from her imagination. After a trip to the American Southwest, she decided that some of the desert environments around her were stranger and more compelling than anything she could imagine on her own. She now uses her own photos as reference material, but always interpreted through her unique sense of dramatic surrealism. 

Sea After Storm oil on linen 74" x 77.5" 2010

Tide at Night oil on linen 24" x 32" 2011

Light After the Storm oil on linen 78" x 104" 2012

Storm Above Sea oil on linen 80" x 71" 2005

Sunset in Fog oil on linen 31" x 24" 2006

"I've dreamed landscapes for years, and my dreams play an enormous role in my work. In fact, when I first started doing landscapes I felt insecure about painting in this style, and the dreams were like positive omens for me, and I've done a few paintings that were exact replicas of images that came to me in dreams."

"My work is about the underbelly of the beauty of nature - and the dark side of nature is its indifference. Nature isn't friendly, nor is it unfriendly - it's the perfect embodiment of the Other."- April Gornik

 photo by Eric Fischl