Tuesday, February 17, 2009

vittorio colaizzi

It's common knowledge in certain art worldy circles that a yellow painting never sells. I've been witness to these feverish whisperings. Yellow is just plain twee and won't match the decor. Shocking!

I can't disagree more. There's something about the colour yellow that always satisfies me when I paint. It pulls a picture together and activates the whole surface. I can be making mud pie then I add yellow and hey presto - a seductively satisfying balance with a certain zing materialises. Hmmm... a trite observation perhaps but, well, you know what I mean.

A painter that uses yellow with aplomb is Vittorio Colaizzi. Oh boy, how that yellow wave tingles my senses. I'm always returning to have a look at his work over on release form, a great painting blog .

Unlike the previous post these pictures are not always easy to digest. A refreshing quality in any painter, frankly. A painting, when easy on the eye, just bores the eye.

Let me explain.

On quick inspection the crisp shapes seem too easily placed. But then you notice a white space here, a scratchy unfinished brush mark there and suddenly bam! your eye begins to take in unusual and surprising placement of forms. Likewise the treatment of the painted surface, although not easily read in a jpeg, suggests a rigorousness only seen in intelligent painting.

There is a sense of paintings history here. Dare I mention 'formalistic concerns' without rousing the Greenburgian detractors humphing over there in the corner. But this is exactly what attracts me and VC fulfills the whole brief. Placing colour, juggling form, pushing paint, thick or scrappy. Decisions about when to stop doing all of these things - when to stop so that painting remains fresh, not a dead weight, is what he is master of.

Now, go look.

Saturday, February 14, 2009

Leslie Baum

Unfortunately the artist has removed image link

Here's a Chicago based painter I'm absolutely drawn to and I can't stop thinking about the message behind her works. I first learned about her over at dear ada - a really sweet blog with a heart warming brief. Go check it out.

A sense of doom and imminent decay comes juxtaposed with gorgeous light washes and sumptuous cubes of candy colour, (is that a liquorice allsort popped on top?). I'm reminded of some primordial world - ancient ruins possibly - which, despite their rich and shiny structures, have slumped. Blood or a fierce hot sunset stains the white spaces. Prophetic perhaps? I won't be fooled by the surfaces of these paintings. They may be easy on the eye but here I detect a sinister barb. I'm looking forward to seeing more of her work.

Thursday, February 12, 2009

Varda Caivano

Untitled 2007 Oil on canvas 70 x 51 cm


Here is a painter I have been wanting to dedicate a post to for ages. I came across her work in an old Modern Painters Magazine two years ago. I'd love to know when or if she'll be having a show again. You can see her work here and here.

This is a picture I just want to savour - get up close, lick each pane of tasty colour. Paint application is frenetic, impatient, refusing to conform. And shapes move forward or beyond the picture plane; never settling. I'm reminded of crushed velvet. I just can't pin it down. A view within a view within a view within a view within a view..........

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

looking around

Dear reader, if you're still out there, please forgive me. I've been plenty busy with all sorts of crazy things, which is why this blog stagnated for so long.

I'd love to post more work from painters who are, as yet, unrepresented or just emerging. Feel free to email me or leave a comment with a link to your blog/work.

What am I looking for? From the works I've posted so far you can probably tell what catches my eye. But I'm open to the bigbad universe of painters everywhere-

So...let's get this party started!

Joe Furlonger


Joe Furlonger

Travelling amid Mountains and Streams
2008
Acrylic, pigment and binder on canvas
182 x 91 cm

Master of the brush...what more can I say. Except maybe this: If I were a believer, God would be velvet moss green. These paintings make me swoon. Delicious layers of liquidity - lovingly and oh so respectfully applied. Nothing is under or over done. These sing. I'm diving in! Check more of his work here.

The paint has finally dried. Welcome to 2009! I'm ready to comb the big wide virtual world of painting again. Stay tuned for more tasty delights. Peace.
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