ABSTRACTS: COLOUR

The various conceptual themes of my paintings notwithstanding, the underlying visual theme throughout the body of my work is a focus on spatial relationships. Within each painting, the compositional use of space – the proximity between “objects,” as well as proximity to borders and edges – is a primary feature. Whether few or multiple, larger or smaller, the relative placement of shapes creates some variation of spatial relationships. At times, those relationships are overt, while at other times they are hinted at and implied. The shapes themselves, often and deliberately imprecise, further lend themselves to convey a sense of movement (not to be confused with the impression of motion). The use of visual texture within the positive spaces, and the layering treatment of negative spaces, further contributes to the suggestion of compositional movement, and in so doing, these create a visual context. The eye moves from one shape to another, and perhaps in that movement, perceives varying depths and densities.  

 

In the creation of these paintings, my process reflects Paul Klee’s observation that, “Spatial art does not begin with a poetic mood or idea, but with (the) construction of one or more figures, with the harmonizing of several colors and tones, or with the (possible) devaluation of spatial relationships...” Thus, and as applied to the paintings in this portfolio, “construction” takes place upon the canvas itself. But this is only a starting point. Intuition and the spontaneity of discovering how shapes relate to one another, and the space they occupy, consistently leads me to work, re-work, create, or abolish visual relationships. In addition, and unlike my work in Abstracts: Black and White and Hebrew Letters & Words, I use colour in these paintings as a way of creating or inferring a contextualizing tone, one that might invoke a time period, reflect an experience, set a mood, or give expression to a state of consciousness.   

 

As with abstract imagery in all its potential forms, the paintings in this portfolio invite the viewer to discern visual relationships, emotional tone, and substance of interpretation. In doing so, it is the viewer who completes the creation of these paintings on their own terms, and in this, each painting is created over and over, ad infinitum.