I went into the Large Space

“And just as her images . . . articulate a boundary – the place where culture meets nature within a wondrous garden – they also speak to us of the realm where science meets art. And where the light that inscribes itself through the photograph meets the dark line that is drawn across the page.” Robin Laurence, “On Looking at Lyndia Terre’s Art”


With I Went into the Large Space, a reader holds in her hands a digital book of contemplation. She may look at a drawing, then touch and expand it to observe a fine line, a curve, a space evoked. He may then swipe gently to see the photograph that was its model, perhaps virtually entering the scene it reveals. She may wish to view only drawings, then only photographs. He may look, pause, turn to a poem.


Lyndia Terre writes, “memory is a strange part of sight. . . ” In the calm succession of these closely-observed images drawn and photographed while Terre was the first Artist in Residence at the Horticulture Centre of the Pacific, Victoria, B.C., I Went into the Large Space offers readers an intimate exploration of gardens and wild lands. Just as Lyndia Terre looked around, then looked closely, then moved the camera shutter, then examined the digital print. Then, putting aside everything mechanical and digital, took a No. 2 pencil and a sheet of Stonehenge paper and began to draw.


The Canadian art critic Robin Laurence observes:


“Lyndia Terre’s art has ranged widely across themes, media, people and places. As a painter, printmaker, photographer, poet and draftsperson, she has examined questions of faith and spirituality, the idea of home, the dynamics of the female body, and the expressive possibilities of abstraction. For some years, an important ongoing project has been exploring, responding to and reflecting upon aspects of the natural world. Terre has created original art and limited edition books based on her extensive visits to dedicated conservation areas in Canada and the United States, focusing at different times on trees, plants, birds and bodies of water. She has also examined more personal garden spaces, using windows or wooden fences to frame what she sees. Through her recent artist’s residency with the Horticulture Centre of the Pacific, she continues her commitment to connecting with a chosen outdoor environment, a place both wild and cultivated. Not only does her art express a deeply human appreciation of the beauty she encounters, but it also draws our attention to conservation issues and, more philosophically, to the interface between nature and culture.”

Lyndia Terre was born in Montreal, Canada. After earning the Bachelor’s degree from McGill University, she received her Master’s from the Rhode Island School of Design. She has traveled widely to natural spaces, including Attu and the Galapagos, and was the first artist in residence at both Horticulture Centre of the Pacific and The Nature Trust of British Columbia. Lyndia Terre has exhibited and participated in galleries in Canada and the United States, and has owned her own gallery. Her drawings, etchings, paintings, and other works on paper are held privately and in public collections including the National Park Service, Washington, D.C.; the National Institutes of Health, Maryland; Georgetown University Hospital; and the Town of Caledon, Ontario.