Judith Murray
Morning Raga
2006
Oil on linen
56 x 60″

Excerpt from www.sundharamtagore.com

In Murray’s most recent work, the always-present vertical bar on the left side of the canvas counters the horizontality of the remainder of the image. The bar draws attention to the edge, creating an active border that alternates the shape of the image from square to slightly rectangular. At the same time, the separation of the bar and the central form is sometimes made uncertain through flecked brushstrokes and scumblings. Either form could be next to, on top of, or behind the other. Consistently using a limited palette of red, black, white and yellow, the layered short, quick horizontal spurts of color create a complex web of marks that recalls the lapping of water over pebbles or light diffused through leaves. Lilly Wei has noted, “These sources are simply a point of departure for an extended soliloquy on how sensation, sensibility, and digressions can still be conveyed through paint.” Her images have energy and flow, an inner glow that meets with external light to create a glowing translucency. As Richard Kalina has written, “For Murray, painting is an act of discovery, and as such, a way of approaching the spiritual and a means of furthering the dialogue of 21st century abstraction.” […more]