Redtree Times

Well, my show was delivered  to the Kada Gallery yesterday and owner Kathy DeAngelo, along with her  helping hands, is busy hanging and arranging the work on the gallery walls for  the Saturday evening opening.  There was the usual relief on the ride home, knowing that the greater part of my task in this show was done and the work was safely in place.  I feel very good about this show.  I think the work is strong and  mature in its development and has the consistency that I so desire for my work,  each piece fitting neatly into the overall context of this show.

One of the paintings that I chose for this show is shown above and is titled Behind the Curtain,  a 12″ by 36″ canvas.  This is a very simple, elemental painting in its design, which plays to the strength of this piece.  It is meant to be spare in its tone, a clear evocation of stillness and contemplation that is carried out via blocks of color, strong underlying texture and open space within the composition.

The pale blocks of color which make up the sky create a curtain-like effect here from which I pulled the title.  The chaotic swirls and lines of the underlying gesso surface seem to form a separate  world of motion and energy that is only slightly hidden behind this curtain of sky, as though it were of a different dimension in time and space that is both unattainable yet always within reach.  Perhaps the gears of the universe turning while we stumble along, unaware. of the great power lurking so near .

The sun here is the mysterious part, a green blue sphere that appears more as a lush Earth-like planet than a burning sun.  For me, it makes this piece feel very introspective, like the Red Tree is outside itself here,  looking back on planet Earth.   Regardless if  this is the case, this painting feels quiet and questioning, focused on bigger themes of being.

At least that’s how I see it…