Erika Huddleston
677 pixels me painting
photo: George Gonzalez

My artwork is focused on the study of nature in urban settings.

I’ve made bodies of work recording Shoal Creek Greenbelt in Austin, Texas, the Trinity River in Dallas, Texas, Waco Creek in Waco, Texas, Jemison Park in Mountain Brook, Alabama, and the Ramble in Central Park in New York City.

Particularly, I am interested in better understanding how perceiving changing natural processes in an urban park setting can affect human psychology.  Painting for long hours in park “urban wilderness” settings in cities around the world provides the means to stay onsite for longer periods of time for analysis and observation beyond a brief site walk. Painting provides a complimentary data-collection counterpart to digital mappings of landscapes and is a tactic for recording temporal change which is traditionally considered difficult to depict in plan. And, painting outdoors without an image or photograph is a welcome face-to-face interaction amidst my habits of texting and other digital interfaces.

All work is painted life-size and drawn and painted as seen from a sitting position in the landscape– whether a small flower or large branches.

I have a Masters degree in Landscape Architecture and a BA in Fine Arts.

For other facts . . . please download the CV~

Watch this short film , The Ramble, by Katherine Ray!

The painting palette a few hours in.