"Empty Spaces" Painting

A belief in color above all else is the main driver of Pal Teravagimov’s work. Through usage of a primarily drip-paint method, Pal extends the possibilities of organic, take-it-as-it-comes shapes and harnesses them into expressive regions making use of blank space. The visual result is a moment of short impressions, with the viewer finding themselves in a forest full of sound, color, and shape. To be in a forest, one doesn’t need to take note of every leaf, animal sound, twig, and gust of wind to know they are in a forest, and to appreciate it as such. All elements combine into an organic whole, rendering the forest, and the paintings, greater than the sum of its parts. Originally a photographer, Pal has previously explored the power of detail and wholeness via digital camera. With influences such as Ansel Adams, Sebastio Salgado, and Michael Kenna, Pal’s training has been aided by a careful independent study of black and white photography, and he eventually took the plunge into full-color, free form work built by paint, rather than by the camera. The journey from photography to paint was also directed by Pal’s world travels. Born in Budapest and settled in Germany, he has gone from the Himalayas to Africa, to the open spaces of the United States, and fell in love with the colors of the natural world. Landscapes, wildlife and portrait photography have morphed into a complex system of form, separate and one, contrasting and blended, expansive and contained. Through teaching photography workshops in many places he has traveled to, he has not only taught others about his methods, but engaged with other artists in each place that he has loved. These acrylic on canvas paintings represent a full journey of an artist's career and the wider world, morphing through time, material, and space.