This is a painting that is from a number of years back, part of a very small group of similar pieces. Maybe three at the most. I’m not even sure if I ever publicly showed these pieces, although I think I did exhibit one for a very short time. This particular piece is 12″ by 48″ and is on a masonite panel. It sits unframed in the main part of my studio and has remained one of my personal favorites for years.
I can’t really describe fully why I so like this painting, it being so atypical of my work. Perhaps it is the color and the sense it gives of light streaming through stained glass. It has a lovely transparency. Or maybe it’s simple abstraction of it, the idea of its possibility of representing anything. For me, it is the obvious– a bird’s eye view looking down on a red road as it weaves down the topography of a hill to a lakeshore.
But I also see it sometimes at the same time as being a feather from some exotic bird. The blue circle reminds me of the eye from a peacock’s feather and the green plays off this color in a way that recalls some sort of feather. I call this piece Red Feather Road but try not to tell anyone for fear it will alter the way in which they see the painting, trying to make their view fit into the title’s parameters.
But maybe I like this piece because it is not typical of my work but I still see myself in it while others may not. Perhaps it is this sense of disguise that I like. Like the feel of wearing a mask , walking about in anonymity. Maybe I should call this painting The Mask.
Redtree Times 