I’ve been working on a series of pieces that are monochromatic but for small bursts of color. It started as an exercise, just something to reboot my brain after finishing the show that’s currently hanging at the Principle Gallery in Alexandria. I wanted to think less about color and more about form, letting color emerge as the exercise went on. I wasn’t sure what would show up but as these gray paintings took shape I was pleased by the overall feel.
They felt stripped down, detail peeled away leaving only the essence. Haiku-like. But still saying essentially what I wanted from them.
So after the show, which had a great response for this work, I decided to explore a bit more with this series. It’s been interesting to revisit familiar compositions with this spartan palette, finding new definition in in the already known. There is a different sort of challenge in trying to coax emotion from the limits of grays and blacks, keeping myself from going to my strength, color. For me, maybe that’s the appeal of these pieces- that tension of restraint.
This painting is Days Pass In Gray and is definitely familiar in form. With full color, this piece is an iconic image of strength and perseverance- a celebration of triumph almost. But stripped of color except for a touch of red in the tree’s canopy it becomes a different view of perseverance. There is a victory of sorts but it seems more hard-fought and the price paid is worn for all to see. The red in the tree is a garland of victory but the tree realizes that the days don’t stop to celebrate any triumph but continue their steadfast march ahead.
Time has the pitiless stare of the sphinx.
Maybe that’s too grim an assessment because I do see a joy in this painting as well, in the distant light on the far mountains. It gives a certain hope to this piece that lifts it above the darkness that I wrote of above. Perhaps that is what I enjoy about this work, the polarity of the emotions it pulls all at once from me.
Maybe. I don’t know. I guess I’ll have to look a little more…
Redtree Times 