Environmental Art by Gayle Stott Lowry

Click the left or right arrows to view all paintings in sequence. 

Fracking well at night
Deception
Hydraulic Fracturing continues on private land, leaving polluted soil and water behind after the gas has been extracted.
Farmland flooded by a large river
Aftermath
Torrential rainfall increases the flooding as rivers overflow, washing out bridges, breaching dams and inundating farmland in central part of the US. 100-year floodplains are flooding much more frequently.
Forest fire
Raging
Wildfires are occurring with increasing frequency, intensity and scale in developed areas of the Western United States. The title also references the anger that we as environmentalists feel over the denial of climate change going on then and even more, today.
Dark thunderstorm with tornado forming
Imminent
Violent weather events like tornadoes, cyclones and hurricanes are increasing with the warming of the atmosphere
Icebergs in a glacial lagoon off Iceland
Breaking, Floating, Melting
Icebergs are calving off from the ice cap, floating in the glacial lagoon in Iceland, eventually melting and creating a stream of water dumping into the ocean.
Large iceberg off the coast of Iceland
Breaking Off
A singular iceberg, 3/4 of which is underwater, floats in the glacial lagoon on the southeastern coast of Iceland.

Five large-scale environmental paintings by Raleigh artist Gayle Stott Lowry have recently been displayed at the C-MAC Gallery in downtown Raleigh.

According to Lowry, “How we conduct our lives as inhabitants of this planet is a crucial matter. . . . Art has the ability to pose hard questions, offer a different perspective and inspire change.”

Her full series of environmental paintings may be viewed on her website, gaylestottlowry.com, in the gallery labeled CONSEQUENCES.

She describes the genesis of these paintings as follows:

“After years of pondering the fragility of our planet, I felt compelled to address the moral dilemma we face as we deplete our natural resources, desecrate our environment and witness the extinction of species.  I began expressing my distress over this irreversible change by creating large-scale oil paintings.  My research and travel to Iceland in 2008 informed my paintings of retreating ice caps.  Iceland’s use of hydro-electricity to power their grid and hydro-thermal power to heat their homes interests me greatly: they have very little pollution in their country as a result.  

“In 2012, with the help of a grant, I researched and created six additional large-scale paintings addressing other evidence of environmental stress occurring in the United States: wildfire, flooding, extreme weather, pollution of air and water, hydraulic fracturing, and mountaintop-removal coal mining. In the latter case I traveled to West Virginia to see the devastation firsthand.  

“By combining beauty and destruction in these expansive images, I suggest a paradox.  There are no simple solutions to these complex problems we still face. . . . The power and beauty of our environment and the survival of all within will not continue without our protection and care.”