Arthur Dove- Me and the Moon 1937
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We cannot express the light in nature because we have not the sun. We can only express the light we have in ourselves.
–Arthur Dove
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Really busy morning getting my upcoming Principle Gallery show ready. It seems there is just not enough time in the day and when there is, I don’t have the stamina to take advantage of it. Thought I’d share a few words from the Modernist painter Arthur Dove (1880-1846) who was someone I looked to when I was first beginning to paint. I liked the way he merged abstraction and representation in his work and how he used recurring elements in his work. The ball/circle shape that I use so often as my sun/moon always makes me think of Dove.
He was also from the Finger Lakes region of New York, born and raised in Canandaigua and educated up the road at Cornell. While that may hold no importance in his work, it interested me because it made me wonder how he saw the same things I have often seen in this area. How did this environment shape the way he saw and expressed the world?
Anyway, here are a few of my favorites along with a video of his work set to a nice Schubert piece.
Arthur Dove -River Bottom – 1923
Arthur Dove- Sunrise– 1924
Arthur Dove- Willow Tree — 1934
Redtree Times 