TANGENTS & EXPLORATIONS

Like Kline, the paintings in this portfolio are intended to reflect my own exploration, one that embarks on and embraces an expanding variety of visual tangents. The paintings here not only represent something of a divergence from my other portfolios stylistically, they reflect a difference in approach to the work, and the resulting work itself; indeed, these paintings exude a kind of visual energy and emotional tone that is a departure from my other portfolios. Where many of the paintings in Abstracts: Black and White, Abstracts: Colour, Colour Fields, and Hebrew Letters & Words employ controlled and measured arrangement of shapes, and often make use of either muted colours, or discards colour altogether, the canvases in this portfolio explore the potential of compositional vibrancy, agitation, movement, and variance of colour.  

 

For the most part, the paintings in this particular portfolio have been approached and executed without pre-conceived intent regarding form or composition. They were begun, took shape, and evolved organically. With each application of paint, new possibilities emerged, new tangents were explored. 

 

With each canvas, foundational colours were applied loosely, while subsequent layering and brushwork spontaneously yielded new and varied compositional opportunities. Choosing to focus on one such opportunity, or perhaps being prompted to consider another, I may, for example, have chosen to explore altering a preliminary colour scheme, or build upon an emergent element – a shape, a texture, or a compositional relationship that resulted from the presence of relative space.

 

In regards to composition, many of the paintings here place an emphasis on the fluidity of movement, inviting the viewers’ eyes to do their own exploration and discovery. To that end, the brushwork employed in several of these paintings is deliberately more visible and multi-directional. 

 

Despite my working with visual opportunities (primarily) as they presented themselves, the viewer will know and understand that, in the end, the artist does, indeed and ultimately, make decisions and does, in fact, make choices. To that point, Lawren Harris, who declared that, “…art is a creative interplay between the conscious and the unconscious, with the conscious mind making all the final decisions…” was not only correct, he was stating what the viewer recognizes as self-evident. 

 

As this portfolio further develops, new tangents will continue to emerge, and as they do, they will invite exploration that will undoubtedly lead to new discoveries. To be sure, there is much to look forward to!