2015 #4 Painting

This is a 5-canvas piece, designed to be displayed left to right in a particular order (positions for each canvas are noted on the back, below the signature), with an inch between each canvas. Standard picture hanging hardware will be needed. As with many of my more recent works this non-representational abstract piece is not an 'all over' painting, so there is a gestural sense to the work. Five colors were used, layered on in strata so that interference patterns are created at the overlap areas. This adds an additional element to the flow of the piece, which in places seems to splash together and in others creates a sense of flow. But flowing where, one might ask? It's as though these five panels are meant to be part of a larger work, with 7, 9, 11, who knows how many more canvases. But these canvases don't exist; this is it. The richness of the overlapping, spreading bands of layered color provide a second level of disruption to what can be seen as an incomplete work, or better yet a partial work. I like this feeling in my paintings, that they may not be quite complete, that they hint of a larger picture while still standing on their own (the first and fifth panels serve to bracket the work). An unsettledness, both in the scope of the painting and the dynamic interaction of the paintings assures a viewer that the piece will not seem quite the same each time one looks at it. It is not meant to be peaceful; it is meant to be energetic, and a challenge to one’s attention. It goes with a strong morning cup of coffee rather than a cup of scented jasmine tea. Or drink the soothing tea while watching the painting at work; now there’s an interesting combination of incoming impressions!