Thursday, May 29, 2008

Oil on canvas, 12" x 16", 2008

5 comments:

  1. Something's going on with your brushstroke here, no?
    I like the purplish strokes in the center. They remind me of a Renoir landscape of Venice in the Minneapolis Institute, in which a few daubs of ultramarine seem to entitrely disrupt the pictoria space, but demonstrate perfectly the reality of the painting.....?
    not sure how to say it

    http://www.artsmia.org/viewer/detail.php?v=12&id=1163

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    Replies
    1. Vic, I never said this back then (ten plus years ago...), but, yes, I think I was purposely trying a to use a larger, more uniform brushstroke in this painting. Just to see what would happen.

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  2. Wow, interesting. Renoir is so much stranger than we think. I went to the show of his landscapes in Philadelphia in the Fall. A few incredible gems.

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  3. All of these canopy scapes, to me, make me realize that our view of tree foliage, during the height of the photosynthesis season, might be similar to the view of light -- if light had eyes. That is, when one sees what looks like foliage floating with no wood to support it, the leaves (foliage) are presented to light in the most efficient way. To put it another way: the sunlight gets the most amount of leaf area presented to it. The optimum amount. The wood is hidden by the leaves, so, just as in your paintings here, the foliage seems to be suspended and floating.

    Also, partly because of this, one gets shapes and colors, without structure (tree morphology, as botanists call it). So, one gets a more heavenly, painterly view than during other times of the year -- for the viewer of paintings, painted, and for the painter, I'm sure.

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  4. Hey, John, that's a good comment. Don't know why I didn't say anything 3-1/2(!) years ago.

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