This painting is about navigating difficult times in a relationship and blocking out outside noise and interference.
Focusing on the connection between two people.
It also shows how when we have misunderstandings it is hard to separate what the person is actually trying to communicate (white lines) and our preconceived notions and perceptions (yellow lines) of what they are trying to say.
Antonio Lopez Garcia's The Dinner is eye-catching. I can't stop looking at it. He is a realist painter, who was lauded by Robert Hughes, and his subject was often figurative. He is noted as having 'an acute perception and understanding of the beauty of the objects he portrays.'
'Though López is devoted to the mundane—he depicts humble people, buildings, plants, and cluttered interiors—his portrayal of these subjects is compelling and beautiful. Starkly lit studies of his studio, bathroom, and the red brick wall in his backyard underscore an interest in prosaic subject matter. His deftness brings attention to these simple forms, encouraging the viewer to re-examine the presence of ordinary objects.' Reminiscent of the more recent Mohammed Sami.
Antonio López Garcia, The Dinner (La Cena), 1971-80.
The unfinished quality, the stark lighting, the desaturated palette alongside it, the viewer's gaze being caught by a little girl eating soup, the mother's fragmentation. They all collide with technical skill and painterly realism in a really entrancing way.
Are we dining? Who are we? Are we the father? Are we intruding?
I don't think it's supposed to be uncanny or disquieting, but this piece evokes something in me, past what any regular display of mundanity would evoke. Similar to Mohammed Sami, as I said, but more figurative, not just snapshots of rooms and spaces. And it relates to food. The quiet interactions we have, the time away from time to sit and enjoy company or stories, to exist with those who make us feel safe and at home.
Rolph Scarlett - Blue, Red, Purple, Orange, and Yellow Abstraction
Rolph Scarlett - Abstraction - 1934
Rolph Scarlett - 1889-1984
Scarlett was Canadian-born, came of age in the Midwest, and spent few important years in Hollywood, where he designed stage sets. He was an industrial and theatrical designer, jeweler, and artist who turned to abstraction after meeting the Swiss artist Paul Klee in 1919. His work from this early period echoes Klee’s use of color, his confidence in naïve, primitive forms, and his blend of abstraction and figuration. In its flat spatial qualities it prefigures the Indian Space painting of the 1940s by a decade.
In spite of his self-imposed obscurity over the past half-century, Rolph Scarlett’s paintings are represented in a number of significant museum collections including the Guggenheim (which still owns over 30 works), the Smithsonian Institution, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (from the important Leslie Collection), the Montreal Museum of Art, and the de Young Museum in San Francisco.
System Processor, 2023. 1/1
buy it now for .404eth here
Part of an experimental figurative series inspired by the 'Blue Screen of Death'. Digitally drawn on iPad using tools from Art Set 4, a digital canvas application.