Plein Air / Remote Sensing
Myles Dunigan, Florida, USA
Plein Air / Remote Sensing is an ongoing series of paintings based upon smartphone-based 3D scans of nature. Through the process of photogrammetry, a method of 3D imaging based on taking photographs from multiple angles, I am able to capture these vignettes from the natural landscapes of S.E. Wisconsin and North Florida. These scans are imperfect records of my experience of nature, filtered through a smartphone, and reconstituted into a digital model. I meticulously recreate these 3D models as 2D watercolor paintings as a play on the ‘Plein Air’ artistic tradition, which entails artists painting directly from nature as a spiritual, or meditative practice. In an era where our experiences are constantly mediated by our devices and technology, I see this series as a meditation on how we experience nature, the uncanniness of augmented reality, and a contemporary satire of the Romantic trope of the lone artist amidst the landscape.
Plein Air / Remote Sensing 1
Watercolor on paper, 14” x 11”, 2018 – 2021
Myles Dunigan
Plein Air / Remote Sensing 2
Watercolor on paper, 14” x 11”, 2018 – 2021
Myles Dunigan
Plein Air / Remote Sensing 3
Watercolor on paper, 14” x 11”, 2018 – 2021
Myles Dunigan
Plein Air / Remote Sensing 4
Watercolor on paper, 14” x 11”, 2018 – 2021
Myles Dunigan
Plein Air / Remote Sensing 5
Watercolor on paper, 14” x 11”, 2018 – 2021
Myles Dunigan
Plein Air / Remote Sensing 10
Watercolor on paper, 14” x 11”, 2018 – 2021
Myles Dunigan
Myles Dunigan is an American artist and educator born in Massachusetts. His work addresses ecological anxieties and the role of technology in imaging the natural world through the apocalyptic and the uncanny. Dunigan was trained as a printmaker at the Rhode Island School of Design and holds an M.F.A. from the University of Kansas. His recent exhibitions include the International Printmaking Center of New York, the Boston Public Library, the Far Eastern Museum of Fine Art in Khabarovsk, Russia, and Modern Eden Gallery in San Francisco. Dunigan currently works at the University of Florida and Santa Fe College, and resides in Gainesville, Florida, where he is closely monitoring a bird’s nest constructed in a discarded cardboard box.
