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www.reesepaintings.com

"The true painter strives to paint what can only be seen through his world." ~André Malraux


After a year of intermittant "painter's block"  I am working again in my studio, and feeling in a tentative positive state. Painting is a solitary activity, and as artists, we are often working in a vacuum. Unless we have a show hanging, reaction to the work is minimal. With several pieces underway, I decided that perhaps if I write about what I am doing or am attempting to do, it might act somewhat as a muse for me as well as give me some feedback on the work I am creating -- hence the establishment of this blog. 

As for the blog title, traditional, representational painting is a language for expressing what’s visible. But I feel my work is the most successful, and most interesting, when focused on things not entirely visible. I paint what I see but also what I sense and feel by utilizing my interior and unseen world --- in other words, the invisible world. Plein air work or  studio work from photographs are only touchstones or landmarks which guide me to other inner spaces. By so doing, I find that I am pushing the boundaries between representational and abstract work.

You can enlarge the images in this blog by clicking on them.


Jan 13, 2011

More Snow!



Winter Country Road # 2    8" x 8"
Winter Country Road # 1      8" x 8"
When I moved to Vermont thirteen years ago, I very quickly changed my artistic focus from the figure and botanical work to landscape. Daily, I drew inspiration from the pattern, texture and emotion of the natural terrain which surrounded me, and it soon became the primary focus of my work. Moments in life are so fragile, never to return in quite the same way -- with these colors, in this light -- ever again. It is these special fleeting images –  a snow covered road or a skating pond at dusk -- and the emotion they engender, which I tried to capture in my winter landscapes.  Above two small oils over a tissue paper underlayment; and below Skating Pond at Dusk , a large (24" x 48") similarly composed piece.     


Skating Pond at Dusk     48" x 24"
                                                                                                                                                       



Yellow and Blue, 30" x 24"
White on White, 20" x 20"
As mentioned in the previous posting,  few years ago I expanded my subject matter  to include what I call “buildingscapes” -- the wonderful barns and farmhouses that are so closely identified with Vermont's agricultural image. The history and heritage of our state are so embodied in these buildings -- symbols of hard work and a rural way of life -- but these buildings are disappearing one by one throughout the state. Learning to see these buildings with a sense of both past and present with depth and sensitivity, to appreciate the subtleties of color and light as they play over our common, everyday buildings from the past, and to paint them without sentimentality  without postcard prettiness, was a central focus of that work. Painting them is my small way of helping to preserve an endangered species, to save a part of the legacy of Vermont before they are erased from the landscape forever. They were part of a featured artist show I had at the Chaffee Center for the Arts a few years back. 
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1 comment:

  1. UnknownJanuary 14, 2011 at 5:40 PM

    I love your buildings, all of them, but especially the "White on white" painting.

    ReplyDelete

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