Garden of Delight– At the West End Gallery
Simultaneous contrast is visible depth – Reality, Form, construction, representation. Depth is the new inspiration. We live in depth, we travel in depth. I’m in it. The senses are in it. And the mind is too.
–Robert Delaunay, Simultanism, 1913
I don’t know that the depth that French Modernist/Cubist painter Robert Delaunay (1885-1941) describes above is the same as I am talking about today but I liked how he expressed it and it could fit– if you squeeze it a little here and push it a bit there. He was talking about simultaneous contrasts, about seeing two differing representations in an abstract painting. Well, I think that’s what he was talking about. Not totally positive on that and will do some research on it later. For now, it doesn’t matter.
My interest in depth comes from a recent visit to the West End Gallery where Jesse Gardner, the gallery owner, handed me a pair of cardboard framed 3D glasses. It seems that a glass artist with an interest in optical illusion from the Corning Museum of Glass had been in that week, wearing the glasses as he went from painting to painting. He pointed out to Jesse how well the 3D effect worked on many of my paintings. She put on a pair and was wowed by how much the paintings seemed suddenly have that extra depth and how the Red Tree seemed to jump to the forefront and had an almost sculptural feel to its crown.
These glasses were not the old ones with one lens red and the other blue. These were ChromoDepth glasses which push the colors Red and Orange to the front of the picture and organizes the depth of the remaining colors according to their position within the rainbow’s color spectrum– ROYGBIV which is Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet.
Without my knowledge and quite by accident, quite a few of my paintings follow that order of color, at least somewhat loosely. And since the focal point of many is the Red Tree, some of my work seemed a perfect fit for the 3D effect.
Lake Troubadour
When I visited the gallery, Jesse and I went around the gallery and some seemed to jump out at us, especially those with a darker sky in blue or violet. It felt like it added a new dimension to those pieces where it really worked, such as Garden of Delight, above. In the piece shown here on the right, Lake Troubadour, the mound and field with the guitarist were pushed way in front of the background. It seemed to glow and created what I can only call a deep shadowbox effect, giving the scene a fuller sense of the depth that it represented.
I went back to the studio and ordered some of the glasses. When they came, I went around the studio and wasn’t able to get quite the same results. For one thing, some of the paintings here didn’t have the correct arrangement of colors. I also found that you need enough light to allow the colors to react. But on those pieces where the colors were in place and the light and angle was right, the effect was fascinating. The lines formed by the black base of the painting that separate the colors turned into what appeared to be shadows behind the forms, further enhancing the 3D effect. And, a I pointed out, the Red Tree seemed to take on a fuller sculptural form, even more prominent int he picture, if that is possible.
Seeing the work in this new way has been most interesting and I have began thinking of ways in which I can employ the effect. But overall, I doubt that it will change the manner in which I paint or how I choose the colors for each piece. I sort of believe that if I began to think too much about how to employ it, it would become contrived and lose whatever organic quality it possesses. That is normally what happens when I try to force an idea or concept into a piece. But having the idea appear on its own is another thing, especially when it has a fresh and natural feel.
When it just is. Maybe that’s why it was such a thrill to see the pieces in the gallery and the studio take on that extra depth and life– they were already alive and existing on their own.
If you get a chance, stop into the West End Gallery soon and take a tour with their 3D glasses. You might see some of the work in new ways.
And that is usually a good thing.
Redtree Times 
This is interesting, although consciously employing a technique that depends upon special glasses rather than human eyes for its full effect to be seen seems problematic to me. I’m not sure why, except that it feels like imposing something external on the painting, rather than allowing it to develop organically. Anyway: if I were in the neighborhood, I’d sure stop by to see how the paintings look when viewed through those new lenses.
It’s interesting to get a new perspective on the work but you’re absolutely right about it imposing something external on the painting. I would certainly never want to use it as a basis for creating my work, preferring to let the work grow intuitively. However, I am not above trying some experimental pieces just to see how far I could push the effect– just for fun, mind you.
Speaking of experimentation, this just occurred to me: why not try a painting while wearing those glasses? That ought to be interesting!
I am not sure how it would matter much until the piece neared completion and don’t think it would yield much outside of a raging headache. And I can get those easily enough on my own without the glasses!
Gary, I think I’ve been seeing that effect in your paintings, even without the glasses. I’ve wondered all alone what caused some of your paintings to be more “3D” than others. I had almost come to the conclusion that the black outlines were causing a bit of a drop shadow effect. But… I had noticed the color had a lot to do with the “depth” in the paintings.
I’ll have to try a pair of the glasses and see what they do to enhance the effect. Might be interesting to see what effect it has on the images on the monitor…
Hi, Gary- Your observations line up well with my own. Creating depth into the picture is always a priority for me, even without 3D glasses and I think you’re right about the black lines creating a drop shadow effect. I haven’t had great results on my laptop screen. I am going to try increasing the screen brightness to see if that helps. Hope you and your family have a fine Thanksgiving, Gary. All the best to you!