"Laguna Canyon Road"

Comment

Comment by Renuka Pillai on March 21, 2013 at 11:46pm

Thank you

Comment by Resident Curator on March 20, 2013 at 3:41pm

Curator’s Comment:

 

While there is an equally astute photographic attention to detail throughout your other paintings, Laguna Canyon Road has a vibrant energy that seems to transcend the close, immediate realism.  Employing a strong use of atmospheric perspective, I enjoy the choppy paint quality in the extreme foreground, and sense of deep space in the receding foggy blue mountains.  The tiny figures in the center of the canvas anchor the sweeping expanse, and theoretically suggest the insignificance of our human presence, much in the tradition of the Hudson River School painters.  Coincidentally, the Romantic vista extends beyond a breach or cliff, only lightly hinting at the potential perils of natural forces against the human trespassers.   I also am attracted to the “Boat at Dana Point for its similar gestural quality.  Much less complex in spatial arrangement, the saturated color and impasto texture of the hull pushes to the front of the picture plane.  Subtle vertical elements also balance the chief horizontal drift of the brushstrokes and spill of the water.