Winter Shadows - small paintings and Studies (+ others added at a later date!)
Playing with shadows and perceptions of form, distilling it down into something more minimal. Colour is still important in these ones, but in a more limited palette. I started by looking at small cropped areas that I’m particularly happy with in previous paintings, and going back through some of my photographic ‘notes’ that I’ve taken - images of buildings and objects and shadows.
When I started trying to pare back my artworks further, and limit the complexity in colour, form and detail - it was an interesting challenge! I began some of these paintings with the intention that I would limit my colour palette to just 2 colours, in some cases just black and white. . . . . well, lets just say that was a step too far to start with, and I ended up wanting/needing to add some variations in tone, little pops of colour and additional detail. Having said that, there is a perverse sort of freedom that comes from working within defined constraints, and I am liking that. There is a lot of careful decision making to be done.
(Scroll down to see all the paintings!)
Edit 2023:
I am continuing to add to this series, and will do so over time - I don’t feel like I’m done with it yet! Scroll down to see new ones.
These paintings began as mostly small framed studies - experiments in minimalism. I call them my Winter Shadows series. I have a bit of a thing for shadows and how they play across surfaces, defining form. On a sunny winters day they seem to be at their best - long, low and crisp. More recently I’ve been starting to ‘go big’ with this series, because at a larger scale they almost feel like you can walk into them, they add a dynamic element to an interior at a large scale.
I was reminded recently of a task we were set in my first year studying Industrial Design, where we had to draw a collection of objects by sketching only the shadows and nothing else. It was the first time I became consciously aware that you could define a form using nothing more than a shadow - the brain fills in all the gaps, brilliant! It also produces a pleasingly minimal outcome.
I’m always curious whether everyone’s brain deciphers such simplified information in the same way - or not! Most often I have a definite idea of what I see in my paintings, but I’m surprised how often others see something completely different. Recently I was telling my son what I was going to call one of these new paintings, and he asked ‘why?’ Turned out he interpreted it quite a different way and saw a very different form. I like that people see different things! We are all different, after all.
Click on the images below to read more about each painting and see prices and more detailed images. Email me to purchase.
Acrylic on canvas
900 x 1200 mm (including frame)
2022
Protected with an archival UV varnish
Signed and dated on the back, ready to hang
I originally painted this with the portrait version in mind, however it works equally well as a landscape painting. Both ways I see reference to a space in or between buildings.
This painting was in the exhibition “Interior Dialogues’ at Muse Art Gallery in Havelock North.
Contact me if you are interested in viewing or purchasing this painting.