I was talking with a friend of mine last night about abstract landscape painting and I came across Raquel’s work this morning. What I find interesting in this work is how all the slabs of yellow paint sit at different points in space. I really get a sense of the interrelatedness of all the strokes, textures, and colors in developing the spacial tension in this piece.

Raquel Mazzina / Jaune / 122 x 92 cm / oil on canvas / http://www.arthousegallery.com.au

Raquel Mazzina’s work is an exploration of the artist’s emotive response to landscape. Topographical appearances are left behind, concentrating on the light, atmosphere and spirit of place. This intuitive and emotive approach results in a sensuous and luscious painterly surface. Her masterful use of colour conveys the seasonal changes from Autumn to Spring. {Read More…}

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Elaine de Kooning: Winter Landscape Collage (via artnet.com)

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Here’s a large format watercolour I just finished last week.

Gordon Fraser / untitled / 2008 / watercolour, pastel, guache on paper / 44 x 30 inches (2 Panels) / gordonfraserfinearts.com

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Merrill Wagner / Large Flower Small Owl / 2006 / Paint on steel / 87.75 x 82.25″ / sundharamtagore.com

I checked out this show this past week. I wasn’t familiar with Merrill Wagner’s work, but I loved how she painted with the steel. It’s interesting, Richard Serra’s work makes you really feel the presence and the weight of the steel, whereas with Merrill’s work I found myself enchanted with the surface, the rust, the marks left by the heat of forging, etc. There was a delicacy and lightness about the steel.

Wagner’s oeuvre explores the possibility of steel and slate as a painterly surface. Wagner begins with found materials, either die-cut scraps of steel, or pieces of slate, and transforms them into abstract landscapes or flowers. She imbues the surface with an unexpected softness yet still maintains an architectural form. Painted directly from nature, her forms allude less overtly to geometry than to a structural topography. Her assemblages are suspended by magnets giving them a floating quality. Her innovative utilization of the dichotomy between the softness of the pigments and her subject and the rigidity of her surface has earned her the acclaim of the art world.

Merrill Wagner @ Sundharam Tagore, 547 West 27th Street, through 10/15

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paul christopher flynn / work 1 / oil on canvas / www.pcflynn.com

paul christopher flynn / work 2 / oil on canvas / www.pcflynn.com

Two paintings from a fall 2007 exhibit at the Beijing 798 Space entitled The Homeward Collection by Irish artist Paul Christopher Flynn.

Paul said “It is obvious to anyone who sees my work that I have a great love of certain styles of Chinese painting. During my long absence from painting, the art which spoke most to me was usually Asian, mostly Chinese – it was only natural therefore that when I began painting again, those influences resonated most in my work. The opportunity to create a body of work expressly for show in China was a great joy to me. As I painted I felt a sense of coming home, not so much for me as for my paintings. It is my wish that these emotions – peace, hope, joy – are evident in the work.”

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