Summer Clouds

Comment

Comment by Resident Curator on October 26, 2015 at 11:57am

Curator’s Comments:  

 

I applaud the very fine draftsmanship in your architectural paintings- the grandeur of San Pietro Basilica is captured in the sweeping expanse of the warm façade.  The pale blue-violet sky and dome skillfully accent the pale yellow tonality of the right side of the space.  The emphasis on focused areas of contrasted value nicely balance the most loosely painted details, retaining some of the expressive marks from the original small study.  The tiny figures moving through the space serve both as reminders of the physical immensity and imposing mass of the cathedral as well as the emotive idea of the individual being part of a larger institution.  This extreme variance of human scale and landscape is also noted in Summer Clouds.  Taken in its entirety, it initially reads as a light non-objective piece.  The subtle shifts between sand, sea and sky are punctuated by tiny dark figures.  The people appear poignantly inconsequential against the backdrop of a large summer sky.