In this painting the red squares are in the foreground. They appear to float on top of a background of various colors, where the blue mass reads as an integral shape and therefore dominates the other areas of this background.
At its right border (1), the blue is convex, meaning it curves outward, creating the feeling that it is pushing outward to the right. This dynamic is emphasized by the sliver of white (2) which is being worn thin by blue’s intrusion. The white is concave. It’s a dart or arrow pointing to the right.
Stop, you may say at this point. This a colorful painting, I like it, that’s enough. You’re over-thinking this thing. These blotches of color are not going, pushing or invading anything. They’re just sitting there.
True. The PAINT is sitting there. But the PAINTING is not a physical object; it’s an event in the mind. The power of abstraction is that even though there is no identifiable object depicted in an activity, the viewer of the painting will EXPERIENCE an activity. A drama, really, full of tension, aggression, pushing and pulling…and resolution.
We perceive the red squares as floating on top of everything because they have clear edges that do not bleed into the background anywhere; plus, there’s a suggestion of a horizon line at (3). The painting creates the illusion of spatial depth. It teases you into thinking “landscape.”
Since the red squares are not distributed evenly, we get the sensation that they are drifting from one side of the “landscape” to the other. From left to right? Or from right to left? My sense is that they are blowing to the right. Try it.
The drifting reds are not round. Imagine them as red dots and the painting becomes a circus. Imagine them petal shaped and it becomes sentimental. No-no. The reds have to be angular to add frisson. Your mind likes edginess. Keeps you alert and on your toes.
Why would anybody go to the trouble of analyzing a painting at this length, you may say. Maybe somebody needs to get out more, has too much time on her hands. Ha,ha. I’m merely taking the time to articulate what is going on in your mind when you’re standing in front of a painting that grabs you. At museums I often hear one person say to her companion, I like that. Well, I’m curious why. Someone will look at a painting for a long time. Why? Well, I’m suggestion they’re swept up by the drama. The drama is in the mind.
Painting by Jane Donaldson, ~30″ x 40″
Oh, and by the way, if you flip the painting, the drama changes…errrm, dramatically.
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artamaze by Katherine Hilden 