“Whilst traveling I soon discovered my favorite art, architecture and landscapes are deeply connected to the place from which they have grown.”

Bernard Trainor was raised on the Mornington Peninsula along Australia’s rugged South Eastern Coast near the city of Melbourne. It was here that he developed a lasting awareness and appreciation of the potent landscapes that inspired him to pursue a career in art and design.
Bernard arrived in Northern California twenty-five years ago where he is the founding principal of Ground Studio a landscape architecture practice with studios in Monterey, Santa Barbara, and Napa.

Their designed landscapes are featured in a wide range of books, social media, and publications throughout the world including the New York Times, Vogue Living, Deezen, Garden Design, Gardens Illustrated, Dwell, and Architectural Digest. In the past ten years Ground Studio has produced two books published by Princeton Architectural Press, Landprints (2013) and Bernard Trainor: Ground Studio Landscapes (2019), both monographs solely devoted to the their work.

Bernard combines his art and design in a studio, deep within his own personal garden, this dynamic experience has a significant effect on his creative life. He approaches his art and design through a very personal lens, interpreting wild and built landscapes into abstracted forms on large canvas and board. The art is exploring the lasting images he has ‘absorbed’ living on the edge of the Australian and Californian coastline; these experiences have formed a distinct point of view.

ARTIST’S STATEMENT

This simple observation and a keen awareness of the regional context inform all my pursuits. This is my inspiration, place-driven art and design.

I have discovered my fascination is with distinct patterns on the land formed by natural occurrences in that particular place – I dig into the authenticity and truth behind this repository of meaning. Working in these dry climates I see distinct seasonality that provides ‘fertile’ conditions to accentuate these landscape patterns.

Working in any medium that will express my viewpoint, my approach is to interpret and abstractly represent layers of memories and interactions with landscapes where I have lived for the past 50 years. These interactions can be personal, overwhelming, lasting, fleeting, fulfilling, and above all else, humbling.

Each experience affects me in completely different ways, largely dependent on my attitude in that particular moment – What am I bringing to this particular place and what am I taking away?

Rather than any futile attempts at replicating what I have seen and what I felt, my abstract art is based on layers of memory, instinctively un-earthing pattern, texture, and form.

My intention is to explore my art in this way, searching for clarity, expressing what is absolutely essential.

CV