By Jeff Dillon | April 16, 2025 | All Posts
Honouring resilience, confronting loss, and holding space through art and nature
#89 – “Nightwood”, Painting by Jeff Dillon Fine Art
As wildfires continue to sweep across Canada, I keep coming back to my painting Nightwood. I created it years ago, but it carries a different weight now, one that feels rooted in everything we’re witnessing across the country.
My connection to the forest goes all the way back to childhood. I spent countless summers exploring the woods, climbing trees, turning over leaves, watching how light filtered through the canopy, learning the rhythm of the natural world. It was more than a playground to me, it was a place of wonder, peace, and purpose. That love carried into adulthood and eventually into studying horticulture, where I deepened my understanding of how ecosystems work and why forests matter on such a profound level.
Even now, plants fill my studio and trees are in nearly every painting I create. They’ve become part of how I process my art. But watching the forests burn, seeing entire regions smothered in smoke, families displaced, wildlife under threat, and firefighters risking everything to protect what remains, it’s heartbreaking. And it’s a reminder of just how fragile this balance has become.
The balance I’m talking about isn’t just ecological, it’s emotional, social, and environmental all at once. For so long, we’ve trusted that nature will bounce back, that forests will heal, and that seasons will pass as they always have. But these fires are coming harder, faster, and earlier than they used to. The soil doesn’t have time to recover. The wildlife can’t always adapt. The systems in place to protect people are stretched thinner every year.
What we’re witnessing isn’t just nature doing what it’s always done, it’s nature under pressure. Too little rain. Too much heat. Land that’s drying out and holding on the best it can. And all of it is happening on a scale that’s becoming impossible to ignore.
I painted Nightwood knowing that fire has long played a role in nature’s cycle. Under the right conditions, it renews the land, cracking open cones, clearing away overgrowth, making space for new life to take hold. But what we’re seeing now feels different. It is different. These fires point to a deeper imbalance, one that most of us recognize. A shifting climate. A growing urgency. And a rising cost for those who live closest to the land.
This painting is my way of bearing witness. Not as a statement, but as a record of feeling. A way to acknowledge the people living through it, and the deep emotional toll of watching something you love struggle to survive.
If you’ve been affected, know I’m thinking of you. And if, like me, you’ve spent your life drawn to forests, their beauty, their resilience, I hope Nightwood offers you a moment to reflect, remember, and hold space for what we’re all living through right now.
And even in the midst of all this, I still believe in us, in our ability to come together when it matters most. In times of crisis, it’s often everyday people who show us what hope truly looks like. Neighbours helping neighbours, communities rising to support one another, and acts of quiet courage that remind us we’re not alone. It’s in these collective moments of care and resilience that the path forward begins to take shape. I believe we can heal the Earth, together.
Jeff
Thank you for being here and sharing in this journey with me. If you’re enjoying what I’m sharing and want to see more, consider following or subscribing for free on Substack, or becoming a paid subscriber to help support my art and stories. You can also visit www.JeffDillon.ca to see more of my work.
