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Paul Hammacott

Artist’s Statement

 

Rising above the current divisive, culture wars Paul Hammacott’s Landscape painting seeks to address our deeper, shared, human nature and what is possibly the most pressing issue of our time, environmental degradation.

 

Works of healing, Paul’s art draws upon the studies of the last 30 years showing the healing effects of nature upon the mind and body (on blood pressure, anxiety, stress, depression, pain reduction, etc) and in particular upon the pioneering work of Roger S. Ulrich, which demonstrates this effect is achieved equally by visual representations of the natural world. Studies that show identical results, across all cultural, gender, age, educational and racial lines. In other words, our response to depictions of nature and subsequent healing is a genetic process, not culturally formed, but ingrained in the very nature of the human being itself.

 

Attempting to restore our communication with our surroundings, Paul’s works are approached through the eyes rather than abstract concepts, aiming directly at the bodily unconscious, in the knowledge that the body will relay its effects to all levels of our being. In the hope that through an increased respect and understanding of our symbiosis with the natural world humanity might one day be persuaded to reconsider its destructive habits.