Return of the boat...

Comment

Comment by Resident Curator on April 22, 2013 at 9:23pm

Curator’s Comments:

 

I’m enamored with Return of the Boat to Corte Madera Slough for its surprising flatness within a more traditional marsh landscape.  The low flat brush in the foreground appears to be a contrasting natural foil against the more graphic elements leading up to, and including, the water line.  The extreme dark values of violet-black compared to the not quite white patches of reflection create surprising patterns of water versus land.  While the contoured outlines are envisioned as hard edges, there is still a sense of flowing movement in the irregular undulation of the shapes.  Viewed alternately with an eye towards linear perspective, the interior implied triangle could be construed as a receding plane.  If in fact it does converge on a single vanishing point, the actual horizon is obscured somewhere within the inky darkness.  Slough along Corte Madera Creek is slightly less mysterious because the viewer can easily discern the edge of land, but the piece shares an equally striking us of severe light within a field of otherwise local color and daylight.  The small pops of verdant green in the foreground nicely re-emerge near the central patch of light, tying the spaces together. It is in this restrained color palette that the two distinctly incongruent elements can coincide, and visually coalesce.