Staying Neutral

Experience teaches us that limitation is the essence of creativity. Like a single flute playing in an echo chamber, the sounded notes of a few colors, a few shapes or lines set up visual resonances within the bounding space of the rectangle, multiplying complexity in unforeseen ways through their endless permutations. Using color in a limited way is a great way to explore this phenomenon. Here are some examples of works that choose to proscribe the range of color intensity, exploring the neutral zone that lies in the center of the color circle. Because of the relativity of color, the rainbow continues to assert itself but in a lowered intensity key. Color appears, not through pigmentation, but through optical relationships. Absence becomes presence.

Distilled Life

“When you pick up one piece of dust, the entire world comes with it.”  -Zen saying

A selection of still-life paintings, mostly contemporary.

“There are four elements that ultimately determine quality and meaning in painting. One, the color you choose and how much. Two, where you put it; three, in what manner. The fourth is outside you, and that is life.”  -Larry Rivers.

Some Contemporary Landscape Paintings

In memory of the summer just past, a selection of some of the great landscape painting being done today.

Ben Aaronson

Stuart Shils

Ryan Smith

Prilla Brackett

Chelsea James

Lois Dodd

George Nick

Philip Koch

John Virtue

Alex Kanevsky

Elizabeth O’Reilly

Israel Hershberg

Langdon Quinn

Antonio Lopez

Rackstraw Downes

Neil Riley

John Dubrow

Priscilla Whitlock

Phillip Geiger

Click the link to see the entire Contemporary Landscapes album.