Just a quick note now on my birthday (I’m pretty old). Two paintings, done some years apart but both express something about the passage of time, memory and loss.
A recently completed painting, “Remembrance Recorded”, shows a woman apparently writing in a book. The background seems to be fragmenting much the way our memories fray and scramble as time goes by. Maybe she’s trying to jot it down before it all disappears. This painting is an example of a blue/orange palette. A book case anchors the left side of the painting and suggests space beyond with the blue darkness behind the figure. I also brought in some black which I almost never do. The verticals are black and I made that green of the hat and book from cad yellow and ivory black.
A painting I made in 2014 – five years ago – titled “Through a Passage in Time” is an image of my father inspired by several photos rowing a boat when he was a young man - SO many years ago, before I was born and before he was married. I painted him in twice … once fragmenting and once fading into the water and sky. He’s rowing a vanishing boat and fragments of his white clothing seem to be floating away into the distance.
Indicating the passage of time through fragmenting and fading might be a good theme for me. Old person that I am, I have lots of experience with these matters.