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“The natural world has always inspired me with its beauty, complexity and its life sustaining qualities. I love to find connections between nature and our lives as humans. As I wander through any given landscape, appreciating and discovering every aspect of creation, I am consistently inspired by what I see and experience. My photographs are an expression of that experience. When using nature as a metaphor for ideas and concepts, I inevitably discover latent depths of beauty and meaning .” (taken from artist statement) Growing up in the country outside Chatham—and later, as a youth in that city—Phillips developed a, for him, discernible visual viewpoint: seeing, as he phrases it, latent abstraction in closeup surfaces and layers. He knew enough at that young age to get himself a camera to capture those images. His post-secondary education choice, in the mid-eighties was an easy one: enrolling to study photography at Fanshawe College in London. Soon after graduation, he met and married a young woman and moved to Owen Sound. He pursued commercial photography (portraits and weddings) and worked, as well, in the construction industry. New photographic material was everywhere to be seen – living on the Niagara Escarpment. He participated in juried and group exhibitions at the Tom Thomson Art Gallery. At one point, however, Phillips found himself losing creative perspective and living in a lengthy state of limbo—with his marriage failing and resulting in divorce. He ended up moving to St. Catherines and shortly thereafter met and married his present wife, Louisa. Together they have two kids. An ever growing restlessness with living in an urban area, led to the decision to move up north and begin a new life while operating a small hospitality business. Bancroft was chosen—with its abundance of hills, forests and lakes—and moved in 2018. Utilizing his construction skills, Daryl built a lovely home and guesthouse/B&B and called it Cedarhaus. |
And he, of course, still finds the time to pursue his photographic goals: creating photographs and films of the local and more northern landscapes—while exploring antique photography printing techniques and using a pinhole camera to capture unique closeups and vistas. He had some works accepted into recent Art Gallery of Bancroft juried shows and has a solo exhibition planned for 2026 at the Art Gallery of Bancroft. A new film he has made will be showing at the Bancroft Village Playhouse this coming October. His photographs are displayed on the walls of the guesthouse located at 23 Vanluven Lane in Bancroft. Daryl can be contacted at darlscottphillips@gmail.com (Profile writing and photo by Allan O’Marra) |
