I wander into the territory of representational painting every now and then, with the idea that maybe I can explore the abstract content I so love in the context of pictures. I SO love works that walk that line between purely abstract and representational. I'm fascinated by how little it can take to suggest a whole scene from what is otherwise just shapes, lines, colors, values, marks, and scribbles that consist of material applied to a surface.
Jane Lewis's life drawings, for example, are masterful scribbles evoking all the weight and presence of the figures they represent. I see the figure, but I see the charcoal or pastel, and the gesture just as much. Material, process, subject, all have equal importance in these.
Sherri Cassell's Landscapes, countless other landscape painters, Jylian Gustlyn's vessels, Wendy McWilliams' florals, Julie Hamilton's work: these are just a few examples of artists whose work, to me, speaks as eloquently of abstract content and material as it does of its subject.
Here are a few examples of my latest foray into representational images. Consider these all in process. They are on 18"x24" Bristol.
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