Oddly enough, this painting has proven to be controversial. At least between me and one of my gallerists.
For me, it’s a fairly conventional painting of an aspen ridge, but because the white is so opaque or something, there’s confusion about whether it reads as aspen trunks or rock.
In my mind, I like that ambiguity. The painting itself is an exploration of layering color with oil paints and the fact small blorps of color unite and form shapes is what makes it work for me.
I also like the fact this painting straddles the gap between abstract and abstracted landscapes. This is the place I would like all my landscapes to come from.
I tell myself I will always take the advice of someone who has been in the business for several decades, but in this case, it really bothered me to have to come and pick it up because it wasn’t fitting in the gallery.
The painting is from 2019, and I have been sitting with it all this time, looking at it daily. To me, it makes perfect sense within the context of my current work. I wish I could sell it just to prove that gallerist wrong.
I jokingly told my gallerist I have hung this painting up above my kitchen sink so I think about him every time I see it. He laughed and so did I. I’m not really still angry at having to bring it home, I just wish we could all catch up and be on the same page.