My work is rooted in "plein air" painting of the 19th and early 20th centuries, and filtered through ideas relating to modernism, neo-expressionism, biology and environmentalism. Today no corner of the earth is unaltered by technology, yet nature remains beyond our control, infinitely complex and enigmatic. The fragility and resilience of nature, its exquisite order and chaotic unruliness fascinate me.

The work process involves transporting the paintings to various sites on the Niagara Escarpment and Canadian Shield. The Escarpment and the Shield each have rich natural and human histories, and both are sites of frequent conflicts over land use: conservation versus development. The painting sites I choose are places I have revisited since childhood, and so they are also saturated with personal memory. The paintings may be monumental in scale, requiring a major effort to transport, or they may be small studies. Over the course of many months the paint surfaces are built up and gouged, the elements take their toll and gradually, earlier layers are obliterated as the painting repeatedly transforms, becoming a metaphor for the natural cycles of growth and decay. The curator Ihor Holubizky wrote: "As he works on site, Reid allows nature to take its course, to show the accumulation, traces and scars, the evidence of erosion rather than the prettiness of "texturing". At the same time he indicates the profound shift that has taken place in our relationship with nature and the possibilities of a spiritual resonance."